


Breaking Barriers

by lizwuzthere



Series: Season 2 AU [5]
Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers: Prime
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-02
Updated: 2014-02-28
Packaged: 2017-11-23 07:34:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 37,407
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/619641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lizwuzthere/pseuds/lizwuzthere
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p></p><div class="center">
  <p> </p>
  <p>    <img/><br/></p>
</div>Primeverse, AU timeline after Toxicity, Sequel to Opportunity Knocks; Now that Knockout is being hunted by the Decepticons, the safest place for him is at the Autobot base. Miko, however, is none too pleased by his presence... not that it's going to last long- because whatever weird setup he has with the Autobots is about to be ruined when Breakdown shows up again!
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story is a sequel to my previous work, [Opportunity Knocks](http://archiveofourown.org/works/619056/chapters/1116922)
> 
> You may find this one reads a little bit less like an episode due to it being a bit less dialogue and action driven (at least this chapter) Writing Knockout at the base and still trying to keep him in character was a bit of a challenge, and that was sort of the side-effect.  
> Oh, and y'know how the relic hunt was an important plot…? Yeaaaah I hate that plot. I will be ignoring it entirely for the rest of my fanfictions. So don't be confused that it's never mentioned again.
> 
> Also be advised, this story will NOT be updating daily like the last one was because I'm still in the process of writing it (the last one was already finished when I started posting it) It's more likely that I'll update this weekly.
> 
> Thoughts and criticisms are encouraged and appreciated.

"Ugh! You're still here?"

Knockout looked away from the file in his servo and glared down as the little pink headed girl stepped out of Bumblebee- a base full of Autobots with millenniums worth of Decepticon blood on their servos, and it turns out the one whose company he could stand the _least_ was a human? It hardly made sense… but he couldn't help it; the thing was as subtle as a red rust infection.

Mostly the Autobots did him the favor of pretending not to notice him off in the corner and he returned the favor by minding his own business, but this obnoxious little organic… she just wouldn't stop _harassing_ him.

"NO _."_ he began sarcastically, "I've actually left already- This is a holomatter projection I left behind just to annoy _you_."

"Yeah? Well, it's _working_." She said, slamming Bumblebee's door.

" _BEEEzooooooBBZZZZZZZRRT_ "

"Miko, Bee says don't forget your stuff in his trunk." Raf called to her as he hopped out of Bee's other door.

"Oh right!" she mumbled, quickly going back around the yellow car.

It had been five days already. Five days Knockout had been dealing with this awkward tension- and though the human had been the worst offender, she definitely wasn't the only one. Her pal Bulkhead was obviously just as offended by his presence as she was; he was just more subtle in how he showed it: the awkward half glances, the passive aggressive remarks, the hostile grumbling under his ventilations- honestly, it was getting old.

To make matters worse Bulkhead was also healing from his own encounter with the Decepticons, so he was resigned to the base _all the time._ And they had to share the tiny space alloted for Ratchet's medical area while they were recovering, making it even more awkward. _And_ his little pink headed friend would show up every afternoon at the same time and keep the big oaf company; usually at the expense of any peace and quiet that may have settled on the base while she wasn't around.

Knockout watched Miko a moment longer wondering what sort of amusement she had planned today. Deafening music? Messy arts and crafts? One of those _ghastly_ car wrecking spectacles on their television?

Whatever it was, she'd be sure to annoy him somehow during it. As Miko popped open Bumblebee's trunk, Knockout pulled his gaze away and went back to sharpening his digits with the file he'd stolen out of Ratchet's toolbox.

Miko came back around Bumblebee with a burlap tote bag over one shoulder and two lidded silver buckets in her hands, "I thought we could do some uh…" she glanced over at Raf, "What did you call it?"

Raf looked over from where he and Bumblebee had settled in by the couch, "Appropriating a human cultural custom for Cybertronian use."

"Yeah. _That_."

Bulkhead tilted his helm slightly, "Uhhh… what _?_ "

Miko held up one of the buckets in her hand, "I'm gonna paint your nails!" she said with a wide, enthusiastic smile, "I used to do it with my dad when I was little. It'll be fun!"

"Heh, sure Miko. Whatever you say." Bulkhead said, returning her smile as the little human started unpacking the bag. She pulled out a paint roller and a few trays for paint and started setting up along the floor in front of Bulkhead.

Knockout glanced down at her again; she had begun trying to pry open one of the paint cans and was having a hard time of it. As he was just about to look away, she finally managed to pop off the lid, but the force of it caused her to drop the can and send paint splattering across the floor.

Knockout pulled his legs out of the way just in time, and the pink pigment splashed across the ground where his pedes had been just a moment before. "HEY! Watch it you little frizzrat!" he snapped, glaring down at the human.

"What did you call me?"

"A frizzrat." Knockout repeated, settling his pedes back on the floor, careful of the wet paint, "It's a _pest_. Kind of like you."

Miko glared right back at him, but then suddenly her expression became quite sly and she quickly turned back to Bulkhead. As she did she kicked her foot out, sending the paint can flying and clattering against Knockout's ankle and splashing pink everywhere.

"Whoops!"

Knockout stared down at his pink pede for moment before his optics darted back to Miko, flaring in a rage, "AUGH! YOU FRAGGING LITTLE-!" He cut himself off and continued in a mumble, clenching his servos as he struggled to contain his anger, "If I wasn't surrounded by Autobots right now, I'd-"

"You'd what _?_ " Miko interrupted, "You'd squish me? Well go on! I'd love to see you _try!_ "

"That's _enough_ you two!"

Knockout looked up and saw Ratchet had turned away from his computer to look back and, though he had addressed both of them, he was staring daggers at Knockout. He returned the look, but only for a moment. It wouldn't do him any favors to be on his doctor's bad side right now… not any more than he already was at least. Turning away, he pushed himself up and stomped off towards Ratchet's supply storage and began rummaging through it for something to clean his leg with.

He finally settled on a semi-clean oil rag, sat down on the floor, and commenced with trying to salvage his paintjob. "Ugh. I swear, if this hideous pink stains my finish…"

"Pssh. You don't know what you're talking about." Miko paused in continuing to set up one of the trays to sass Knockout again, "Pink isn't _hideous_ \- it's the best color!"

"Pink clashes with red, numb nodes." Knockout said, only glancing up from his work on his ankle. "As if _you'd_ know anything about color coordination. Have you looked in a mirror lately?"

Miko was visibly offended by this last remark and started trying to stutter out a snarky response. Bulkhead, who had seemed to be enjoying Miko giving Knockout a hard time, finally decided to step in; he reached down to encourage her to continue with the paint, "Come on, Miko. Just ignore him-"

"WHY _ARE_ YOU STILL HERE?" she suddenly blurted out.

Knockout stopped in wiping at the paint and looked up. Miko and Bulkhead were looking over at him now, somewhat expectantly. It seemed like they actually wanted a real answer this time. Glancing over, he noticed that Ratchet as well as Bee and his human were watching out of the corner of their optics. He opened his mouth to respond, but after saying nothing for a few seconds he closed it again and went back to rubbing his ankle.

He could just say the 'Cons were still looking for him and it was too dangerous, or that he hadn't quite regained enough strength to fight on his own yet. And those would both be true… but there was something else. Something he couldn't quite put his digit on… but he wasn't about to express any of that to this obnoxious little human.

Rather, he grumbled a quiet " _Whatever…_ " and continued with cleaning himself.

Miko, seeing she wasn't about to get an answer, glared at him a minute longer before turning back to Bulkhead in a huff.

* * *

"Hey! Hey Nine! Check this out!"

MH-09 watched irritably as his partner, MH-10, tipped his right wheels up and began grinding them along the rocky wall along the side of the road they were on.

"Would you stop fooling around?" Nine growled, "We're on a mission."

Ten laughed and et his wheels fall back onto the road. Then he slowed down so they were driving side by side, "Oh, lighten up!" he said, "I'm just having a bit of fun- It's not like they seriously expect us to find Knockout."

Nine hated having to admit that was true- only getting orders as vague as " _Find Knockout_ " just made it all the more obvious. High Command was clearly working hard on its own method to locate the traitor, but for now they'd just scattered a few dozen squads across the planet to make the soldiers feel like they were doing something helpful. All it made MH-09 feel was that he was wasting his time…

Still, the Vehicon had to concede that just driving along the quiet mountain roads with his partner and not worrying about getting a command every ten minutes _was_ somewhat pleasant, even though they weren't accomplishing anything.

They drove on silently, side by side for awhile longer, just taking in the scenic mountain landscape and enjoying the winding curves of the road… then Ten spoke up again:

"Whoa! Nine, I'm picking up… A-are you getting this too?"

Nine hadn't been paying attention, but he quickly went to check his internal monitors; he slowed down considerably when he saw the signal coming through on his scanners. "What? But… That's impossible!" he mumbled, "How could we be picking up his signal?"

"Uhh… Wow, this is serious isn't it?" Ten mumbled, "Should we report into MH-01 and tell him that-?"

"Tell him _what?_ " Nine interrupted, "We're not actually supposed to find anything out here- He'll just think we've fried a circuit!"

Ten hesitated for a moment but then quickened his pace, speeding around the turns in the road. "I know! We'll investigate _ourselves_." he called back, "Then we'll know for certain and we can call in without sounding like we've got a screw loose."

Nine seemed hesitant but regardless, he hurried after his partner.

The two Vehicons hurried around the turns in the mountain road, speeding along, trying to catch up with-

"There! Up ahead!" Nine shouted. Sure enough, farther ahead of them on the road was a large blue SUV.

"Wow, it really is him- It's _Breakdown_!" Ten raced ahead, "Come on! Let's get his attention!"

"Whoa wait a second, this doesn't feel right-" but before Ten even heard Nine's protest he was honking his horn as he came up behind the SUV.

"Hey! Hey Breakdown! It's me, MH-10!" he shouted, continuing to honk his horn, "Have you been alive this whole time? What the _slag_ have you been doing? We've missed you around the canteens!"

The mirrors on the car tilted back, taking in the two purple cars behind it… then suddenly it sped up and began pulling away from them.

"Wha-? Hey where're ya going?" Ten called after him and started to follow.

"Wait! Ten _stop_ \- Something's off about this!" Nine yelled, but Ten wasn't listening and he continued chasing after the SUV.

Nine tried to hurry after him, but he was suddenly distracted by something catching his audio receptors. He turned his focus up and realized two helicopters had appeared and were flying low overhead… he was really starting to get nervous now. Rather than keep yelling he turned on his comm link, " _Ten?! Ten, stop chasing him and get back here!_ "

For a moment a crackling static came across the connection, but then it was quiet. Now Nine was positive something was wrong. This time he tried to call up MH-01, but he was met with the same static- now it was obvious; their comm signals were being scrambled! He mumbled a curse and jammed down his accelerator. Whatever was happening it was serious- he had to get Ten to notice too.

As he approached his partner and was about to shout a warning to him, the SUV suddenly slammed its breaks and swerved around to face them. The Vehicons stopped quickly as well to avoid a collision. After a moment of silence, the SUV began to move with the sound of gears whirring and plates shifting until finally it reformed revealing that it was, in fact, Breakdown.

Ten transformed into his robot mode as well and took a step forward to greet his fellow 'Con. Nine followed suit and quickly grabbed Ten's arm to stop him… as the 'Con looked back he finally noticed the helicopters hovering behind them.

"Before we continue, I just want to personally thank you two for revealing yourselves-" The Vehicons stared back at Breakdown again as he spoke, but not in Breakdown's voice. "We were just about to start tracking a few of you down. How kind of you to save us the trouble!"

Not a second after he finished the sentence, the helicopters each shot a small grey canister towards the Vehicons which latched onto their backs, sending a massive electrical charge through the pair. Their agonizing screams didn't last long, as they were very quickly offlined and collapsed in a heap on the road.

" _Very good, sir. Shall we call for transport?_ "

Silas raised a digit to the comm link on the side of his helm, "Yes, and make it quick." he replied, then he gave a short nudge against Ten with his pede, "We'll strip down and process this one for parts… and the other will make an excellent first addition to our army."


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thoughts and criticisms are encouraged and appreciated

“ _Ratchet? Come in, Ratchet- do you read?_ ”

The medic placed down his tools and stepped over to the computer console, “Yes. Go ahead, Arcee.”

“ _I'm being tailed. Pretty sure they're 'Cons._ ”

Ratchet brought up Arcee's position on his monitor, and there were indeed two Decepticon signals not far behind her on the map, “Yes I'm picking them up on my scanner.” he replied, “Shall I send you a bridge?”

“ _No, I can take care of a couple 'Cons myself- I just wanted to be sure._ ”

“Well alright, but don't get in over your helm. Optimus and Bumblebee are off-site so you'll have no backup. And the Decepticons are- urrm... significantly more _active_ as of... recent events.” Ratchet paused and glanced slightly back towards Knockout, but then continued, “So proceed with caution, and report back in as soon as possible.”

“ _Will do. Over and out._ ” there was a quiet beep as communications were cut off.

“Geez Ratch. You don't have to tip-toe around it! We all know the 'Cons are after _him_.”

Ratchet turned from the computer's controls to look over at Miko. She and Bulkhead had set up across the room; the human had her guitar in her lap (not plugged in thankfully) while Bulkhead (sporting some freshly painted pink digit-tips) listened to her play. As Miko looked back at Ratchet she stood, “If he's putting _our_ team in danger we should just toss him through the bridge and be done with it already!”

“Miko!” Ratchet began to scold her, but he hesitated. Amazingly, Miko had a good point. The Autobots were definitely at risk by continuing to shelter Knockout. Megatron must have been desperate to capture the medic at that point- The deployment of more ground troops was only the beginning. He shuddered to think what the Decepticon Leader could be scheming at that very moment... but Ratchet would never openly question Optimus' decision to let him stay, and so after a momentary pause he responded the only way he could: “That isn't the Autobot way.”

“Well _he's_ not an Autobot.” Miko said, approaching the platform railing. Then cupped her hand around her mouth and shouted towards Knockout: “AND HE NEVER WILL BE!”

The 'Con had been deliberately facing away from her and doing his best to ignore all of them. However, this last statement finally pulled him into the conversation; he whirled around and glared at the human, “Good!” he snapped, “What makes you think I would even _want_ to be an Autobot?”

“Well then why haven't you left?”

“Here we go again...” Ratchet mumbled, turning back to his work station.

Miko ignored Ratchet and continued, “Seriously, if you hate us so much maybe you should do everyone a favor and just leave! All you've done is put us in danger and cause trouble around the base.”

“ _YOU'RE_ THE ONE WHO'S BEEN-!” Knockout cut himself off as Bulkhead gave him a hard glare; he turned away again as he mumbled curses to himself.

Miko went back over to Bulkhead and resumed strumming her guitar, but she continued over the music, “Since you're so bent on sticking around, maybe you should actually do something helpful... in fact, I bet you'd make _great_ 'Con bait.”

Knockout shot a disdainful glare over at the human, but said nothing in response. As he turned to look away again, he glanced up at the monitor which was still displaying the map and Arcee's coordinates. His gaze lingered as he realized, there were more than two Decepticon signals now. In fact, there was a whole cluster of them slowly making its way across the map right towards the little blue beacon that was Arcee's location. Ratchet was facing away towards his work station and hadn't noticed.

“Well... this might qualify as helpful-” he began, raising his digit towards the screen, “Your friend Arcee is about to be up to her optics in Vehicons.”

“What?!” Ratchet whirled around to face the screen again and spotted the cluster of dots moving towards Arcee. “Where did _they_ come from? And how did they find her so fast?!”

Knockout stood and stepped closer to the console as well, peering down at the coordinates displayed on the bottom of the map, “ _That_ would explain it.” he mumbled, pointing down at them, “These coordinates aren't far off from an energon mine.”

Ratchet scowled back at Knockout, “You've memorized the coordinates of the Decepticons' mining operations?” he demanded, “And you didn't _say_ anything?!”

“I don't know _all_ of them. Just some of the bigger ones.” Knockout said, turning around and going back to his corner, “And that _is_ one of the bigger ones. So you'd do well to get her out of there before the rest of the mining team shows up.”

Turning quickly back to the console, Ratchet tried calling Arcee; “Arcee come in!” he said into his comm, “Arcee? Do you read me?”

Some muffled static came across the connection, and then nothing.

“Scrap! They're scrambling her comm signals.” He looked anxiously up at the monitor again, “And no time to go and get Optimus and Bumblebee for backup...”

“Hey, I gotcher backup right here!” Ratchet looked over at Bulkhead. The green Autobot had stepped forward and transformed his hands into wrecking balls. He slammed them together with an intimidating _CLANG_ , “Fire up the bridge, doc! I'll take out those 'Cons!”

Ratchet scowled at him, “You most certainly will _not!_ ” he snapped,“You haven't fully recovered from your exposure to the Tox-En yet. You couldn't fight off all of those Decepticons by yourself.”

“I _wouldn't_ be by myself!” Bulkhead said, shrugging his shoulders in a pout, “Arcee is there.”

“Yes, but if you were to be separated then-” Ratchet looked up at the screen again and let out a frustrated growl “Arrrgh. There's no time to argue about this!” Stepping over to the groundbridge controls he punched in the coordinates and pulled the activation lever, then moved towards the glowing portal, “I'm going to help Arcee myself.”

“Aww c'mon Ratchet!” Bulkhead said, whining slightly, “If _you're_ going then I could come with you!”

Ratchet paused a moment and turned back, “Certainly _not._ You want to leave _him_ alone in our base?” he said glaring over at Knockout.

Bulkhead followed his gaze over to the ‘Con, who said nothing but only offered a small shrug. Looking back to Ratchet, Bulkhead grumbled a reluctant agreement and transformed his wrecking balls back into his servos.

“Good. Close the bridge behind me- We can't risk any Decepticons slipping through. I will contact you when the coast is clear.” With that, Ratchet turned back and hurried through the groundbridge and Bulkhead obediently powered it down behind him, though not looking too pleased about it.

“They're... gonna be okay, right?”

Bulkhead forced his sour expression back with a light smile as he turned to look at Miko, “Oh sure!' he said, “Ol' Ratch may be a bit rusty but he's no push over, and- well, you've seen how well Arcee handles herself.” Bulkhead paused and looked back up at the map. The two initial Decepticon signals had vanished, but the group had already descended on the blue signals representing Arcee and now Ratchet as well. “Yeah, they'll be okay...” he mumbled.

His optics continued to follow the slight movement of the beacons intently. The map was too large and the signals too small to understand what was happening, but after awhile it was clear that the Decepticons were driving the Autobots back. He began to mess with the console.

“Hrmm. Can we zoom in on this thing?” he growled, “It’s hard to tell what’s going on.”

“Don’t look at me-“ Miko said, “Raf’s the one who does all that techno mumbo-jumbo. I got no idea how this thing works.”

Bulkhead continued to play with the controls trying to get a better idea of how the fight was going. Behind him Knockout was watching curiously as he sat with his arms folded across his chassis, “Shouldn't you- I don't know... call Prime or something?” he suggested.

“They said they'd be outside... communication range for awhile...” Bulkhead said, “I'd have to actually... go off-base to... bring them back.” His sentences were a bit broken up as he distractedly fiddled with the console. Finally, in frustration he slammed his fist down on the keyboard. The screen flickered slightly, then responded by zooming out farther on the map earning a frustrated groan from both Miko and Bulkhead.

“Aww scrap!” Bulkhead looked back down to the controls, “Maybe I could-”

“Wait, Bulk look!”

Turning his optics back to the map, Bulkhead's jaw fell open, “Oh SCRAP!”

On the expanded map, they now saw a _massive_ cluster of Decepticons just above Ratchet and Arcee's position, and another wave was heading towards them!

“Ahh. There's the mine I was talking about.” Knockout said, lifting his digit slightly to point, “And there's more on the way- Better hope they get out of there soon.”

Bulkhead ignored him and continued to glare up at the screen, his digits giving a nervous twinge over the controls. “Arrrgh! That does it!” he shouted, finally turning from the screen and approaching the groundbridge controls, “I'm going out there to warn them!” he placed his servo on the activation lever-

“AHEM.” Miko cleared her throat loudly, “Aren't you forgetting something?!”

“NOMiko. You're not coming with-”

“NOT _ME_!”

Bulkhead turned back around and Knockout met his gaze almost expectantly. The 'Con leaned back against the wall and shrugged his shoulders, “I know you're not exactly inclined to believe this, but you  _can_ leave me unsupervised and I won't break all your computers or squish your friend or anything... Honestly. I'm not stupid. I know it's not in my best interest to cause trouble.”

Bulkhead said nothing in response, and just glared at him clutching his servos tightly.

“You should go. They're getting closer to your friends...” Knockout continued glancing over at the computer again, “It's not like you have much of a choice.”

“That's where you're wrong.” Bulkhead finally spoke up. Stepping over to Knockout he grabbed ahold of the 'Con's arm and yanked him up, “I'm not leavin' you all alone here with Miko- You're coming with me!”

“WHAT?!” Knockout tried to pull back, but Bulkhead had a tight grip on him, “You're out of your processor! There's no way I'm going out there!!”

Bulkhead proceeded to drag Knockout over to the bridge controls despite his protests, “Yeah well Miko was right- It's  _your_ fault the 'Cons are so active, and if you're gonna use our base as your little hidey hole, then I'm at least gonna make sure you earn your keep.” he released Knockout and the 'Con stumbled back slightly, but kept his gaze firmly on Bulkhead for a minute longer. Finally he bowed his helm in resignation.

“...Alright you have a fair point.” he grumbled reluctantly, “But what do you expect me to do exactly? The instant I step through that bridge every one of those 'Cons is going to come at me!”

“I know.” Bulkhead grinned as he activated the groundbridge, “It's like Miko said- We're gonna use you as 'Con bait!”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> weh. This chapter was supposed to have a whole bunch more, but I decided to cut it off early since it’s been so long since I’ve updated this. I feel like nothing happens this chapter, but that’s just because it takes me forever to describe fighting.  
> That’s okay. Next chapter will be less Ratchet and Arcee jumping around and more Knockout and Bulkhead pissing each other off and being sassy~

Ratchet had already suspected that he was getting in over his helm when he went to assist Arcee alone- but the circumstances were rather desperate, and there hadn't seemed to be any other viable options. Now the two of them were facing almost ten Vehicons, and they were slowly being pushed back. He was starting to wish he had risked attempting an escape through the groundbridge rather than staying to fight the 'Cons off.

After cutting down another attacking Vehicon with his scalpel, he held the 'Con's frame out in front of him as a shield, intercepting yet another's blaster fire. “There's too many of them!” he threw down the Vehicon and dashed over to Arcee, who was occupied with a group of her own.

“Well what should we do then?” she said as she continued shooting.

“A tactical retreat?” Ratchet suggested, “If we could just get far enough away to safely make it through the groundbridge-”

“Let's do it then!” Arcee pulled her arm up and leapt forward, transforming into her vehicle mode. Then spun around to flee back down the mountain road she'd come up. Ratchet was quick to follow suit and sped after her as the Vehicons continued a torrent of blaster fire.

“After them! Quickly!” One of the Vehicons shouted. The remaining 'Cons immediately obeyed; transforming and zooming after the Autobots. The one who shouted remained behind, however, and pressed a digit to the comm link on his audio receptor, “JQ-01 to DU-01, the 'Bots are being driven back towards your position. Are you ready for them yet?”

“ _Affirmative, squad DU is in position. Though the old medic arriving changes plans a bit; tell your squad we now aim to take_ him _alive rather than the femme. AA-00 figures the 'Bots are more likely to do the trade if it's a medic for a medic._ ”

“Understood. I'll relay the change.” the 'Con removed his digit from his comm link and ran forward, about to transform and go after his unit, but suddenly the sound of a groundbridge met his audio receptors. He stopped and whirled around only to have Bulkhead's massive fist collide with his helm and send the Vehicon tumbling across the ground with a loud _CLANG!_

As he skid to a stop, he summoned all his strength trying to push himself up; his visuals were growing fuzzy as damage indicators began to flood in. Through the flashes across his visuals warning him about his smashed helm, he could just make out two red and green bots standing just a short distance from him, and he could hear their voices.

“Aww scrap... where are they?”

“They probably fled- Which sounds like a good idea right about now! This is _stupid_! We won't be able to fight off all-”

“We're _not_ gonna fight 'em all! We're gonna lure them away from Ratchet and Arcee so they can escape. Then we'll escape for ourselves.”

“That's a terrible plan...”

“Yeah? Well if you've got a better way to save 'em I'd love to hear it!!”

The Vehicon, still struggling to sit up, instead managed to push himself over onto his back. He raised a digit to his damaged audio receptor, trying to activate his comm link, but suddenly it was kicked away. The assailing pede then slammed down on his chassis, earning a strangled cry from his vocalizer.

“You! Start talking-” Bulkhead shouted, transforming his servo into a wrecking ball and holding it back threateningly, “Which way did they go?!”

“Go on then! Do it!” The Vehicon braced himself against the ground, glaring up at Bulkhead. “I'll never tell you anything!”

“Bulkhead.” Both the 'Bot and 'Con looked over to see Knockout pointing down the road ahead of them, “They went this way.”

“How can you be sure?”

“Well all the skid marks and blaster burns are a little telling.” Knockout replied, with just a hint of snark. “If you'd just bothered to look you might have-”

“ _TRAITOR!_ ”

Knockout stopped and turned his gaze down to the Vehicon beneath Bulkhead's pede. The glow of his optics were flaring from behind his visor, and his digits were digging into the ground in a rage. “Just wait until Lord Megatron gets his servos on you,  _Autobot scum_ !”

“That's enough outta you!” In one swift motion, Bulkhead brought his wrecking ball down on the Vehicon's helm, smashing it into the ground. Stepping off the mangled 'Con, he rushed forward and past Knockout, transforming into his vehicle mode. “Come on! Let's hurry!” he shouted back as he drove off down the road.

Knockout was about to follow after but he hesitated. He glanced back at the leaking frame of the Vehicon for a moment. Finally he turned away, forcing out something like a half-smile, and quipped just to himself; “Frag.  _Everyone_ thinks I want to be an Autobot, don't they...?” 

With that he leapt forward and transformed, racing off after Bulkhead.

Further down the road, Ratchet and Arcee were still fleeing from the squadron of Vehicons, who were still firing wildly after the two Autobots. Arcee realized she was well ahead of the medic and fell back to give him some cover.

“I don't think this retreat thing is working.” she shouted over the blaster fire.

“I know, I know!” Ratchet replied, “Perhaps we should-”

He didn't get to articulate the rest of his idea though, because a moment later the two 'Bots had to slam on their brakes to avoid crashing headlong into the squadron of Eradicons that practically fell out of the sky and landed right in front of them on the road. The flying 'Cons didn't waste any time either; transforming out their blasters they charged towards the Autobots.

“SCRAP!” Arcee quickly changed back into her robot mode and sprinted to the right off the side of the road, “RATCHET! THIS WAY!”

The medic transformed as well and made to follow after, but both of them were stopped in their tracks as the pursuing Vehicons caught up and cut off their escape. Arcee transformed out her arm blades and leapt forward trying to clear them from her and Ratchet's path. She managed to cut down a few but there were just too many of them and she was quickly surrounded.

Ratchet transformed out his scalpels and charged forward to assist her. As he did the approaching Eradicons reached them and some of them stepped in his way to separate the two Autobots. That didn't deter Ratchet, though. He drew back his arm and thrust it towards the first Eradicon. It blocked his attack and took a swipe at him with its claws that Ratchet managed to dodge. He managed to take advantage of a momentary opening from the 'Con's attack and drove one of the scalpels into his side. The Eradicon crumpled to the ground clutching his injury and Ratchet leapt past him and transformed into his vehicle mode. In his smaller form he was able to maneuver around the remaining 'Cons in his way without having to engage them.

Before he could reach Arcee, however, a few of the Vehicons surrounding her took notice that Ratchet had broken away from the Eradicons and opened fire on him. One shot managed to strike him, and the force of it sent him tumbling onto his side. He transformed back into robot mode and tried to stand, but he just couldn't muster the strength. He looked up to see the Vehicons drawing closer, their blasters raised.

“RATCHET!!” Arcee began sprinting to the medic's aid, but the 'Cons she had disengaged transformed out their blasters and began firing after her. Two shots caught her in the back and she was sent sprawling into the dirt. She raised her helm with a painful groan to see the Vehicons were now standing right over Ratchet. Before she could regain her composure a pede smashed into the back of her helm, forcing her back down with a loud _CLANG._

The Vehicon closest to Ratchet lifted his blaster to the medic's helm, “See you in the Pit, Autobot-” he said as it began to hum with charge-

“STOP YOU _SCRAPHEAD_!!” 

The Vehicon paused and looked back. One of the Eradicons had pushed his way forward and was stomping up to the group of Vehicons, “You're supposed to kill the  _femme._ We want the medic alive!” he shouted.

“Wha-? Oh. Um... Sorry, sir. We thought AA-00 wanted us to capture the femme...” the 'Con responded, glancing over at his fellow Vehicons. They all nodded in agreement. The Eradicon glowered at them, his wings twitching angrily. With an agitated groan he stormed over towards Arcee, readying his blaster.

“I gave these instructions to JQ-01. He was supposed to relay them to you.” This was met by confused looks from all of them. “He didn't contact _any_ of you with this information? Well then what the frag has he been-?” The 'Con was cut short by the roar of an engine closely followed by the whirr of a transformation cog- he spun around in time to glimpse a flash of green before he was pummeled into the ground.

The general air of the group changed from confusion to shock as Bulkhead stepped off the Eradicon. It wore off rather quickly though and they raised their weapons to fire. However, yet another sound caught their attention; this time it was of wheels screeching to a halt and a voice-

“Hey 'Cons! Looking for _me_?”

The Decepticons looked back and spotted the red sports car sitting just up the road taunting them with the revs of of its engine.

While the 'Cons were momentarily distracted, Bulkhead took out the other 'Con holding down Arcee and pulled her up onto her pedes, then gave her a short push towards Ratchet, “You get Ratchet outta here- We'll distract the 'Cons!”

“Bulkhea-!”

“There's no time to argue!!” With that Bulkhead rushed forward, smashing through the group of Vehicons again, then transformed and zoomed back up the road. Knockout swerved around and followed after him leaving behind some very bewildered Decepticons.

“Was that Knockout?!”

“Frag it _was_!!”

“What do we do?”

“Whattaya mean _what do we do?_ Let's fraggin get 'im!”

“But what about the other Autobots? And the plan-?”

“SCRAP THE PLAN! HE'S RIGHT THERE!!!”

“NO! No you IDIOTS!” The Eradicon Bulkhead had smashed into the ground had regained consciousness and was trying to get up, “That's what they want you t-!!”

Before he could finish his warning Arcee jumped forward and kicked him across the back of his helm, sending him back to the ground. It hardly mattered anyway- the other 'Cons had already transformed and gone tearing after Bulkhead and Knockout.

Arcee looked over in time to see them disappear down the road, then turned to Ratchet. He was grumbling angrily as she bent over to help him up. “For Primus' sake- Bulkhead's going to get himself killed! What does he think he's doing?!”

“He's saving our plating, that's what.” Arcee said, pulling the injured medic up. “Come on! We've gotta get back to base and get him some help-”


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a big longer as an apology for making you wait so long. Other than that, just enjoy!
> 
> Thoughts and criticisms are encouraged and appreciated

“Fragfragfragfrag FRAG!! How did you talk me into this??!”

“Keep it together, doc-”

“Don't call me 'doc!' And this was YOUR stupid plan! So what now?!”

“Uh... Um... W-we'll figure something out.”

Knockout swerved to dodge yet another rain of blaster fire from the Decepticons behind them. Their pursuers were now six Vehicons and seven Eradicons. Way too many for just the two of them to have a chance at victory. “Of course. That's just like a Wrecker.” Knockout grumbled, “Dive right in without thinking about the consequences- I should have seen this coming... Bunch of fraggin' idiots, the lot of you-”

“'Hey! There's no badmouthing the Wreckerson _my_ watch!” Bulkhead might have had more to say on the subject, but the Vehicons were closing in on them, and he stopped talking in order to slam into one that had pulled up next to him. The hit sent the 'Con careening off the side of the road and crashing into a deep ravine.

Meanwhile Knockout had pulled ahead slightly, but was clearly not going his full speed so as to keep Bulkhead close. “Can't you go any faster?!” he called back.

“Well we can't all be slaggin' sports cars, now can we?” Bulkhead swerved slightly as a blast nearly hit him from the side. “Uh oh. I don't think it's gonna matter- Not even _you_ could outrun those guys.”

As he spoke, the group of Eradicons flew overhead. Transforming to their robot modes, they landed on the road just ahead of the two, blocking their way. Knockout and Bulkhead both slammed on their brakes, as did the Vehicons behind them. Quickly changing back to their robot modes, Knockout and Bulkhead pulled out their respective weapons, preparing to square off as the surrounding 'Cons raised their blasters.

“Take Knockout alive!” one of the Eradicons ordered, “And kill the other Autobot!” At his command the other 'Cons sprung forward to attack.

Bulkhead gave Knockout a small push towards the Vehicons and shouted, “You take the grounders- I'll handle the flyers!” Bulkhead didn't waste any time and made a flying leap into the group of Eradicons, swinging his wrecking ball wildly.

Knockout pulled his gaze away from Bulkhead wailing on an Eradicon to look back at the Vehicons. “It's useless- You should give up now, doctor.” One of them spoke up as they approached, their blasters and claws at the ready. “Lord Megatron may go easier on you if you surrender yourself willingly.”

“If you imbeciles really believe that you should get your heads examined.” Knockout raised his staff and it began to crackle with electrical charge, “Allow _me_!”

Knockout pulled back his staff and lunged for the closest Vehicon. He managed to step aside in time to dodge and the blue charged end of the staff sailed right past him. However as he went to counter-attack, Knockout pulled his staff back sharply and struck him square in the face with the back end of his staff, throwing the 'Con off balance. While he staggered backwards, Knockout transformed his other servo into his saw blade and drove it deep into the Vehicon's chassis.

His teammates, initially surprised that he had taken to the offensive so quickly, began to charge their blasters and fired on the medic. Though Knockout managed to swing the impaled Vehicon in front of him as a shield and he ended up taking the brunt of the blasts. Raising his pede up, he forcefully kicked the Vehicon's frame off his blade, sending him crashing into another one.

The other four didn't waste any time and quickly descended on him. Knockout was able to dodge and maneuver around their attacks for a short time, but they were coming at him from all sides, and it wasn't long before they started landing blows. It didn't help with the fifth one he'd knocked down regained his footing and joined in with the others. This wasn't looking good.

Meanwhile, behind him Bulkhead wasn't having a great time of it either. Though he had initially taken out a few of the Eradicons, they finally realized how much faster they were than the Autobot and had taken to running about and smashing him back and forth between themselves. Finally, one last blow hit Bulkhead so forcefully as to send him flying backwards right into the other group.

Knockout _and_ the Vehicons were sent crashing to the ground in a heap as Bulkhead rolled over them. Unfortunately, Knockout ended up underneath the green 'Bot, and Bulkhead's massive weight slammed down on his recently injured back. Fresh pain shot up his spinal column, and he thought he event felt something start to crack.

“AAUGH! GET OFF YOU SLAGHEAD- YOU'RE CRUSHING ME!” Knockout cried, trying to push himself up. It was no use. Bulkhead was just too heavy, and that last blow had managed to knock the Autobot offline. The only response Knockout got was a small groan.

He got another response, however. One of the Eradicons was laughing. As his peers went to help the Vehicons get back on their pedes, he came over and picked up the staff which had been jarred from Knockout's grasp. “Oh, you think that hurts, huh?” he taunted, twirling the staff around, “Just wait until _we_ get through with you-” the end of the staff crackled to life.

“Stand down!” A second Eradicon came over and swiped the staff from the first one's servos, “High Command has ordered Knockout be brought in _alive_.”

“I wasn't going to kill him... And come on! Don't you want to deal out a bit of justice?”

“That's not our job. Besides, the other Autobots could very well be on their way here. We need to be fast.” The Eradicon looked down to Knockout and the staff in his servo began to glow with energy again. “Once we haul him in, Lord Megatron will ensure that justice is served.” Knockout shrank as low to the ground as he could as the Eradicon held the staff closer to him, “I'm just sorry we won't get to see your face when-”

Suddenly the Eradicon was thrown backwards and the staff sent flying out of his servos. Bulkhead had come back online and took a hard swing at him with his wrecking ball. The Autobot clambered off of Knockout and then pulled him upright, earning a pained groan from the medic.

The remaining Decepticons quickly surrounded the pair and raised their blasters, about to unleash a fresh barrage of lasers on them. However, the Eradicon who had taken the hit stood up quickly, “Hold your fire!” he shouted. Still wavering a bit from the blow, he stepped forward towards Bulkhead and Knockout, holding out his servos amicably. “Listen, Autobot. We're _really_ not interested in you. And we're on a rather tight schedule. So how about this: you surrender Knockout and we'll let you go. No need for any more fighting. We can all walk away with our sparks intact. What do you say?”

Speaking of sparks, Knockout felt his sink. Bulkhead was going to haul aft out of there and he would be left to fight off all these 'Cons by himself! He might as well just clap on a pair of stasis cuffs himself. His mind started racing through all the terrible things Megatron would probably do to him, but then-

“Not gonna happen!”

Knockout looked over to Bulkhead. He hadn't expected that...

“You're making a grave mistake, Autobot.” The Eradicon said, “You can't win this fight- you're impossibly outnumbered. I'm offering to spare your life!”

“Nice try, 'Con! But you don't know two things- One: an Autobot doesn't turn their back on someone in trouble. And two: I'm not just an Autobot- I'm a _Wrecker_.” Bulkhead continued smashing his two wrecking balls together threateningly, then continued. “And Wreckers don't run from fights. Especially not when there's long odds.”

The Eradicon lowered his helm angrily, then raised his arm and transformed it into his blaster, “Decepticons- Take them down!”

“Eh... you still wanna take the grounders?” Bulkhead mumbled.

“No you idiot! We can't fight them off separately!” Knockout grumbled. He glanced up at Bulkhead, then over at the Eradicon who'd picked up his staff. First of all he'd be needing to get that back. Speaking of backs, his was really throbbing by then. Well what did that matter? Both of them were about to get torn apart. Oh slag... And then they'd bring the pieces to Megatron so he could put him back together just so he could pull him apart again-

Oh no, no, that was a bad thing to imagine- the last thing he needed now was to start panicking.

Right. So how many were left anyway? They had taken out a couple Vehicons but these guys were seriously _tough._ It seemed like they just bounded back up after they'd been knocked down... Honestly, there was no chance they were going to best all those Decepticons with just the two of them.

Although, what the 'Con had said before- maybe the Autobots _were_ on their way... They just had to hold off until those theoretical reinforcements arrived. It was just a small glimmer of hope, but at least it was something. He had an idea of how to go about it too, and hopefully Bulkhead wasn't too dumb to catch on. “We need to work together-” he said, looking back at the Autobot, “Follow my lead!”

As the Decepticons descended on them again, Knockout leapt forward to meet the first Eradicon. Rather than engage him, Knockout managed to dodge his swipes, circling around the 'Con and giving him a forceful shove, sending him stumbling towards Bulkhead. Just as Knockout hoped, Bulkhead figured out his strategy immediately and pummeled the 'Con into the ground while he was off balance.

Knockout managed to redirect two more towards Bulkhead before he reached the Eradicon holding his staff. The 'Con swung the staff forward to connect it with Knockout and bring him down, but it was useless trying to best him with his own instrument- Knockout side stepped the attack, wrapped his servo around the staff, and twisted it around tearing it from the Eradicon's grasp. The 'Con didn't even have a chance to react before the staff was swung around and the prods dug into his neck cables.

As the 'Con spasmed with the electrical charge running through him, Knockout swung his staff around, dragging the Eradicon with it and sent it flying towards Bulkhead. The Autobot grabbed the incoming 'Con and smashed him into another of his atackers.

Knockout was about to send another Vehicon Bulkhead's way, but before he could make another move an Eradicon's blaster fire caught him square in the back sending him to the ground. The Eradicon leapt forward to grab the medic, but Bulkhead saw and quickly broke free from his own battle. Rushing forward, he grabbed ahold of the Eradicon's wing, pulled him off Knockout, and hurled him back into the other 'Cons.

“Come on, red! Get up!” Bulkhead proceeded to yank Knockout up by his tires and put him on his pedes. He staggered a bit almost falling back down, but he just managed to stay upright despite the pain radiating from his spinal column.

“Aaagh _frag_...” he groaned, “I can't keep this up much longer...”

“Quit yer whinin'! This ain't exactly a walk in the park for me either!” Bulkhead snapped, turning around to face the Decepticons who were now circling the two of them.

Glancing over at the Autobot, Knockout noticed he was trembling ever so slightly. He hadn't really paid attention to whatever injury had laid up Bulkhead this past week, but he did recall Ratchet saying something about him being weakened by Tox-En... He might be trying to put on a show of staying tough, but that was just apart of the Wrecker facade Knockout was all too familiar with... He might have overestimated how long the two of them could hold out. They weren't going to last five more minutes like this...

The Decepticons began closing in on them again. They could tell Knockout and Bulkhead were at their limit, and they were eager to finally end this- Then suddenly, they stopped in their tracks as the loud blare of a truck horn rang out from behind them.

Not a second later, Optimus Prime came crashing through the line of Vehicons with Arcee and Bumblebee on his tail. They each transformed into their robot forms and together, they began absolutely decimating the remaining Vehicons. As energon sprayed across the road, Knockout and Bulkhead just watched, too exhausted to even lend a hand...

Finally only two Eradicons were left. Apparently they were smart enough to know when to call it quits, because they quickly broke away, transformed, and flew off.

Knockout wasn't sure when it had happened but he found himself sitting on the ground. He looked behind him to see Bulkhead had done the same... he lifted his staff off the ground slightly and angrily jabbed Bulkhead with the back end of it.

“Don't ever make me do something this stupid again...” he growled.

Bulkhead glared back at the medic, “Sorry, doc. Not making any promises.”

Finally, the Autobots stopped firing after the fleeing Eradicons and came over to help up Bulkhead and Knockout.

“ _BeeepboooZZZZRRRRTwhirrrr?_ ” Bumblebee offered his servo out to Bulkhead.

“Nah, I'm alright, Bee.” Bulkhead said, grabbing ahold and allowing the scout to pull him up, “Just a bit dinged up is all.”

“How about you, Knockout?”

Knockout looked up to see Arcee had similarly extended her servo to him. “...I've been better.” he grumbled, reaching up to accept her help.

As he regained his footing, Optimus approached the four of them. “Those Decepticons will doubtless be sending for reinforcements.” he said giving a short glance towards the two tiny specks on the horizon, “I suggest we make our leave.”

* * *

Miko couldn't stop pacing. She had been making laps around the couch and television since Prime and the others left to help Bulkhead, periodically shooting glances at the groundbridge as if expecting it to turn on by itself and spit out the Autobots.

“What's taking so long?!” she finally shouted, stomping up to the platform railing and smacking her hands down on it. “We should go make sure they're okay!”

“Easy there, Miko.” Ratchet replied, looking up from the repairs he was doing on his own arm. “The whole team is out there- they can handle a few Vehicons. Optimus will call when it's all clear.”

Miko leaned forward against the railing and looked down at the floor with a distressed pout on her face, “But Bulkhead was injured... what if-?”

“ _Ratchet, come in._ ”

The medic quickly approached the computer console and pressed to answer the call, “I read you, Optimus.” he replied, “You ready for a bridge?”

“ _Affirmative. The immediate area is secure for now- but there may be more Decepticons on the way._ ”

“Understood!” Ratchet replied, hastily typing a command into the console. “We'll do this quickly then.” he pushed down the lever to activate the groundbridge .

As the groundbridge powered on Miko hurried down the ramp onto the ground floor and ran up to the glowing portal. She reached the edge of the machine just as Bulkhead and Bumblebee materialized through the bridge, moving along rather slowly.

“Bulkhead!” she ran forward to meet him, but there really wasn't much she could do- so she merely walked alongside the two as Bumblebee helped the green 'Bot over to the medical area and encouraged him to sit down with a quiet whirr.

“Are you okay?” she demanded, climbing up the side of the medical table.

“Yeah! Yeah I'm fine, Miko.” he responded with a warm smile. “Just a few dents... nothin' to worry about.”

“I'll be the judge of that-” Ratchet had stepped away from the bridge controls and began running a scanner over Bulkhead.

As he did, Miko stepped up to Bulkhead on the table and tried her best to wrap her arms around his massive wrist.

“I'm alright, Miko. Really!” he insisted.

“I know... but that's twice this week you've scared me.” she mumbled, pressing her face against the warm metal of his arm. “Don't do it again, okay?”

Bulkhead's smile wavered and he offered his other servo, touching her shoulder lightly. “I'm sorry... I'll be more careful. I promise.”

Miko tightened her grip on his arm and held him for just a moment longer, then pulled away slightly to look up at him with a somewhat unconvincing smile, “Pinky swear?” she held up her hand with her pinky extended.

Bulkead let out a quiet chuckle and extended his 'pinky' digit towards her, “You got it, kiddo.”

Miko's smile brightened a bit as she poked his digit with her own finger. She held it there for a moment, then she let out a quiet laugh.

“Awww!” she moaned through her laugh, grabbing ahold of his digit with both her hands to inspect it. “You ruined your pretty nail polish!”

Bulkhead held up his other servo to see for himself, and the pink paint on his digit tips had indeed been mostly scratched off. He looked back down at her with a smile, “Ohh that's too bad.” he said, also laughing a bit, “You'll have to fix that up for me!”

“Luckily, it seems your paint is the only thing that really needs fixing.” Ratchet interjected on their moment. He had finished the scan and was looking at the results on his device. “I'm not registering any internal damage- just some minor trauma to exterior plating... nothing that can't just-”

“I'm not one to be against fixing scratches and dents-” Ratchet looked around to see Knockout had also come through the portal, being mostly supported by Arcee. “-but I think a shattered spinal column is a little more _pressing._ ”

Ratchet lowered his scanner and glared at Knockout, “Oh please- If your spinal column was _shattered_ you wouldn't even be functioning, let alone standing.”

Bulkhead took Miko in his servos and shuffled to the other side of the room to sit. Knockout, with a bit of assistance from Arcee, took his seat on the medical table. Arcee then hurried over to the groundbridge to deactivate it, though not before Optimus came through, of course.

“Alright so I'm exaggerating. Whatever. I'm in _pain_. Do something about it!” Knockout continued, shifting uncomfortably trying to rub his injured back.

Ratchet's scowl became harder, “I have half a mind to just let you stay broken! This whole situation was _your_ fault.”

“What?! ...Didn't we already broach this subject?” Knockout looked up, returning the glare, “I recall you saying some scrap about the 'Autobot way.' Why suddenly-?”

“No not _that._ ” Ratchet raised a digit to point it sternly at Knockout's face, “You were withholding information! You _knew_ there was a Decepticon mining operation in that vicinity. If you had provided us with that intel in the first place we would have known not to patrol in that area and we could have avoided-”

“HEY!” Knockout interrupted Ratchet, shoving the servo out of his face, “You didn't _ask_ me for any information!!” he shouted back, “I'm not withholding scrap- I've been sitting here for a week while you lot have been totally ignoring me!”

Ratchet took a step back, looking a bit flustered. “Well you could have-”

“Oh don't give me that!” Knockout interrupted him yet again, “If I had _offered_ you any information you'd have immediately assumed I was lying. And don't even pretend that you wouldn't!”

“Alright Knockout, we get it. Just calm down-” Arcee reached forward to touch his shoulder, but he swatted her servo away-

“DON'T FRAGGIN' TELL ME TO CALM DOWN!” he shouted, “If you lot had shown up two kliks later I'd be getting strung up in front of Megatron right now- and you want me to CALM DOWN?!”

“Yeah, well we _didn't_ and you aren't!” Arcee folded her arms across her chassis irritably, “And yes, you should calm down; you're in our base. It's safe for now.”

“No! That's another thing.” Knockout continued, “I don't fraggin' care if you blame me for whatever stupid calls you all made today- but I'm sick of pretending to be safe staying at your base! The only assurance I have that I'm safe with you is some ' _code of conduct_ ' that I don't even understand! This whole situation is-!”

“Knockout-” Finally, Optimus Prime spoke up and stepped forward. “I realize this has been a difficult week for you, and I am sorry that you feel questionably about your safety here. However, I believe we can take steps to remedy that should you be interested in making your set-up with us more permanent.”

The effect of his statement seemed to reverberate throughout the room. Surely it had crossed their minds before, but that was the first time anyone had actually suggested it. Knockout staying at the base... permanently?!

Ratchet was the first to speak again, “Optimus you _can't_ be serious.” he grumbled. “I mean, putting him up for a few days is one thing, but-”

“ _BEEPbzzzzzwhirrrrrr_... _boopwhooooZZZZZRRRT_ ”

“It's hardly worth having an extra soldier around if we can't trust him!”

“Trust is something to be earned.” Optimus said.

“Well he already went out of his way to save Jack.” Arcee added. “And he came out of the base just now to help save _us._ ”

“That's not enough to be convincing! Both times it was in his own self-interest to aid us!” Ratchet retorted, “Besides, do you really expect a _Decepticon_ to abide by our rules?”

“If we do not even offer that opportunity for redemption, _we_ would be the ones neglecting our code.” Optimus continued, “If he is willing to follow our customs and provide us with the intel he has at his disposal, then I see no reason for requiring his stay be only temporary.” Optimus paused and turned his gaze to Knockout, who had been notably quiet during the whole exchange. “Of course, the ultimate decision is yours to make... Are you interested in joining the Autobots, Knockout?”


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thoughts and criticisms are encouraged and appreciated.

  
Scrap. He should have just kept his big mouth shut.

It was too late though. The question had been posed. Now Knockout would have to actually make this decision. Did he actually want to stay and... join the Autobots? The very notion had him in hysterics not a week ago when Jack had suggested it, but now... Oh frag. He was actually _considering_ this!

Knockout kept his focus on the floor, avoiding the optics of the 'Bots around him for a long moment until he spoke up: “...And if I say no?” He finally looked up meeting Optimus' gaze. “Does that mean you'll just boot me out?”

“I realize the dangers you would face being on your own.” Optimus replied, “Megatron's intentions for capturing you are very clear... However, should you wish to remain here under our protection, I _will_ require you to meet these expectations. While you have not yet given us reason to believe you still owe loyalty to the Decepticons, having you join our ranks gives some assurance to me that you can be trusted to work with my Autobots...” The Prime lowered his helm, keeping his focus very intently on Knockout. “Their safety is my highest priority. Should you choose to reject my offer and strike out on your own, you would do well to remember that.”

Knockout continued staring up at Optimus, but only for a second. He very quickly broke away from the gaze. Prime had one _intense_ glare. He wasn't joking around about the safety of his Autobots thing.

...But the question still stood. Did Knockout want to join the Autobots? Well the Autobots were all there, and their optics were fixed firmly on him as they waited to hear his decision... so what _was_ his decision?

Well that was a bit difficult, because he didn't really _believe_ in the Autobots. There were only  fiveof them on this planet, anyway! He had always figured it was just a matter of time before the Decepticons snuffed the rest of them out. So he wasn't too keen on climbing aboard a sinking ship... But wasn't any ship better than no ship? Especially since the 'Cons had it out for him now. It would be nearly impossible to stay out of their clutches without any other support. And Optimus did said he was protective of his Autobots... so if Knockout were _one_ of them-

But FRAG. These were the  _Autobots._ The very same ones he had spent millenniums fighting against with the Decepticons. The ones who had slaughtered countless comrades of his. The ones who had perpetuated a broken system back on Cybertron. 

But did that even matter anymore? What was done was done. Cybertron was long gone and all the petty politics along with it. So what it ultimately boiled down to was what was more important to Knockout at that moment? His Decepticon ideals or his survival?

Well, that was hardly even a question.

With some effort Knockout pushed himself up onto his pedes, and, keeping his expression very stern, raised his optics again to meet Optimus'.

“Prime-” he extended a servo out to him, “I accept your conditions... I'll... become an Autobot.”

Prime took Knockout's servo in his own and gave a short nod, “I'm glad.” he said, “There's much you need to learn before-”

“ARE YOU _KIDDING_ ME?!!”

The attention in the room quickly turned over to where Miko was standing on the platform next to Bulkhead- her face was contorted with rage as her scream interrupted Optimus Prime. She released one of her hands from the white-knuckled grip she had on the railing and raised her finger to point it accusingly at Knockout.

“He is NOT an Autobot!” she continued, “He's a _Decepticon_! And you're just gonna let him waltz in here and pretend he's one of us?”

Bulkhead leaned in, trying to cup his servo around Miko and pull her away from the others, “Uh hey, kiddo let's-”

“NO!” Miko shoved his servo away, not actually moving him at all but pushing herself backwards in the process. “He CAN'T stay here. Not after everything he's done!” She turned away and continued forward, sliding down the ladder and running over towards the Autobots. “Don't you remember when he electrocuted Optimus at that museum? Or when he tried to snuff out Jack and Bee and then kidnapped that Vince kid? How about the time he nearly cut off Bulkhead's _head_?! Remember that? BECAUSE I DO!!”

Optimus bent down and reached out to the human, “Miko, as Autobots we-”

“Scrap that!” Miko interrupted, glaring up at the Prime. “You think HE cares about your freakin' Autobot code?! The second he sets catches wind of something better he's gonna take off and sell us out!” Then she whirled around and set her glare on Knockout, “And whattya think is gonna happen when you take him out next time and his _boyfriend_ shows up? You think he'll still be on our side when has to choose between us and Breakdown?!”

Knockout felt that familiar jolt through his spark at the name. He had been matching Miko's angry glare until that moment, but he quickly dropped his gaze. When he spoke again he was quiet, “No, that's...” he paused, straightening his posture and crossing his arms across his chassis. “-not an issue.” he continued, his voice sounding forcibly lighter than a moment before. “Breakdown was terminated months ago.”

“What?” Miko turned quickly over to Bulkhead, “You didn't tell me that-”

“I didn't know!” Bulkhead raised his servos quickly to interrupt her, then looked up to Knockout and the Autobots. “Honestly, it wasn't me.”

“I know.” Knockout said, his tone becoming dark again. “Trust me. If you _did_ then I wouldn't be here right now.” He looked down and away. “It was Airachnid. Just before she turned traitor and ran.”

“What?!” Knockout glanced back over at Miko, a little puzzled, as she continued to whine, “Breakdown is... he's gone? Because of _Airachnid_?!”

“Yes.” he said, raising one optic ridge. “...I'm a little surprised you car-”

“But Breakdown was YOUR nemesis!” Miko had turned back to Bulkhead, “And he went and got himself scrapped by someone else?! I mean, _you_ were supposed to-”

“ _Why you little-!!_ ” Knockout clenched his servos tightly, his optics blazing as he glared down at the human. His mouth hung open another moment as he tried to come up with the most horrid name he could think of... but nothing that came to mind was quite vile enough for this wretched little human.

Before Knockout could manage to piece his sentence together, Arcee interjected. “MIKO!!” She stepped over and scooped the human up into her servos.

“HEY! What're you-?”

Arcee held her carefully and strode quickly towards the inner hallway, taking her out of the room. “I think it's time you and me had a little chat about  _sensitivity._ ” she said as she left.

Knockout continued to glower after them as they passed into the hallway and out of sight. If he was going to have to put up with that little girl and her horrendous attitude much longer... Well, it crossed his mind that he could've made a mistake accepting Prime's offer.

Though Optimus seemed to have anticipated his thought and pulled his attention back. “My apologies for Miko.” Knockout turned his gaze away from the hall's entrance and looked back up at the Prime. “She is young and rather... opinionated. I will speak with her as well.”

Knockout just grumbled quietly in response and gingerly sat back on the medical table, gripping the edges roughly in a meager attempt to ebb his anger. It wasn't helping.

“Ratchet will see to your wounds-” Optimus continued, “And once you are properly repaired we can see about recording any Decepticon intelligence you may have. We will also begin teaching you the Autobot Code as soon as possible.”

“Sounds delightful...” Knockout grumbled.

Optimus nodded shortly and turned to exit into the hallway, presumably to go after Arcee and Miko. Ratchet watched him go for a moment, then turned back to Knockout. Knockout met his gaze and they exchanged a rather tense glare for just a moment. But Ratchet broke away and headed over to his supply storage to fetch the tools he needed, all the while grumbling irritably to himself.

Knockout turned his gaze instead to Bumblebee. His doorwings drooped slightly and he quickly looked away. “ _beeeeeezzzzzzzooop..._ ” he said, pointing after Optimus. After a few small hesitant steps in that direction, he turned and ran after the Prime. As Knockout watched Bee scurry across the room, his optics met with Bulkhead's as the scout passed him.

He quickly looked away. Yeah, Knockout was  _definitely_ having second thoughts about this whole join the Autobots thing now... What would Breakdown have had to say about this? He was sitting not fifty feet from Bulkhead, the bumbling Wrecker his partner had so despised, and he had just pledged loyalty to  _Optimus Prime_ ?? It sounded like the set up for a bad joke. But there he was. It was all true, and the worst part was that it made sense... the sense was a bit weird and indirect but still...

“Hey uh...”

Knockout looked up again.

“We didn't exactly get along or anything...” Bulkhead was looking over at Knockout, rubbing the back of his helm uncertainly. “But um... sorry to hear about Breakdown.”

“No you're not.” Knockout narrowed his optics, “If anything you're probably just upset _you_ weren't the one to terminate him like your little pet wanted.”

“Well yeah... I mean NO! No no I didn't mean it like...” Bulkhead shrugged, “Well I know there was no love lost between the two of us and _I'm_ not gonna miss 'im but... I guess I just meant I'm sorry for _you._ ”

“I'm not interested in fake sympathy.” he turned away, crossing his arms across his chassis in a huff. “And I'm especially not interested in discussing this with the likes of _you_.”

However, Bulkhead wouldn't be so easily dissuaded from the topic. “Yeah but if you actually  _are_ gonna be staying here I figure we may as well get all this scrap out in the open so we can work it out.”

“There's nothing to work out.” Knockout said, still not looking up.

“Well I think there is.” Bulkhead stood up and took a few steps closer to Knockout, “Optimus thinks you've got the bearings to be an Autobot and, whether I agree or not, he's gonna expect us to make nice... And if Optimus wants that then I'll do it... It's just that me and Breakdown-” he paused, “Well our history is a bit-”

“Ugh. Please spare me whatever fanciful story you have prepared about your falling out.” Knockout turned towards Bulkhead again, but still kept his optics low not meeting the other 'Bot's, “I already know _all_ about you two.”

“Oh... So you know about-?”

“Mm yes. The construction team, the Wreckers, the Stunticons... He filled me in on everything right up until I found him half dismantled in the care of that one-eyed abomination...” Knockout narrowed his optics slightly, “I believe it was you and your Wreckers' handiwork that landed him there, in fact.”

“Uhh yeah. Yeah see, that's what I mean.” Bulkhead continued, “If we're gonna have to work together like actual team mates then there's a lotta history we'd haveta put behind us... Don'tcha think maybe we should talk about that?”

“Breakdown was my partner but now he's _dead_.” Knockout spat out the word like an insult. “If I wasn't prepared to put the past behind me I wouldn't have said yes to Prime in the first place. And apparently you'll do whatever he tells you whether you like it or not.” Knockout shrugged and turned away again. “So there's nothing left to say.”

Bulkhead glared down at him for a moment longer. “ _Fine_ .” he turned away with a frustrated groan and took a few steps towards the hallway entrance-

“Although...”

Bulkhead paused to look back. “There was that one incident...” the medic hadn't looked up but he continued to speak, “He wouldn't tell high command the whole story, but Breakdown kept no secrets from  _me_ -” Finally, Knockout lifted his helm and met Bulkhead's optics, “And, for reasons he was never able to explain, he said that  _you_ were the one who rescued him from those techie humans...”

“Ohh right...” Bulkhead began rubbing the back of his helm again. “Yeah.... Yeah I helped bust Breakdown outta that MECH facility awhile back, but uh... I was just... I mean, Optimus didn't want those guys to go dissecting _any_ Cybertronians- not even 'Cons.”

“Hmm.” Knockout hesitated but then continued, “I... suppose I should thank you then.”

“Oh... really?”

“Yes. Breakdown told me what those slagging humans were doing to him. If he had stayed much longer... Who knows what they would have done with his parts and-” Knockout's expression wrinkled in disgust, “ _Ugh_. I can hardly imagine a worse fate.”

“Well uh... you're welcome?” Bulkhead shrugged his shoulders. “Okay... so this might be starting off on a better foot, yeah?”

“I suppose so.” Knockout shrugged back at him, “And you also stayed to fight rather than just let those Vehicons take me in... So thanks for that too.”

“Well... I couldn't very well face the rest of the team if I'd pulled something as cowardly as _that._ What would Optimus have said?”

“Ah. Just following Optimus' lead again, huh?” Knockout mumbled, “Is there an article in that code of yours that just says ' _What would Prime do_?'”

“Haha. Very funny.” Bulkhead crossed his arms across his chassis, “No of course there's not... I mean- at least I don't _think_ so...”

As Bulkhead finished this last sentence Optimus Prime came back into the main room closely followed by Arcee. The femme had Miko standing in her servos. The human had an angry pout on her face as she glared down at her feet. Arcee went immediately up to Knockout and held Miko out in front of her.

“Sooo? What do you have to say, Miko?”

The human let out an angry puff of air and kicked her foot gently on Arcee's digit, “...I shouldn'ta said what I said before... at least not  _in front_ of you I guess.” she mumbled, refusing to make eye contact with him.

Knockout stared at her for a moment then averted his gaze and growled, “Fine. Whatever...”

Despite the tension that lingered after their short exchange, Arcee seemed satisfied by it and turned around, handing Miko off to Bulkhead. “There, see? That wasn't so hard.”

Miko only responded by shooting a vicious glare back at Knockout as she stepped into Bulkhead's servo, which the medic was more than willing to return.

“Are we done with all the pleasantries?” Ratchet interjected suddenly, returning from his storage area toting a loaded toolbox. “Because I'd like to get this over with.”

Knockout couldn't conceal a smirk. It was hard to stay in a bad mood with Ratchet acting so grumpy; the old mech was just too amusing. “Awfully eager aren't you, doctor?” Knockout goaded him on even more.

“Eager is _hardly_ the word I would use.” Ratchet snapped. He dropped his toolbox next to the table and placed his servo on Knockout's shoulder with a light push to encourage him to lie back. “Come on, I haven't got all day.”

“While you are being repaired-” Knockout looked up as Optimus approached him and held out a single datapad for him, “I have downloaded the entirety of the Autobot Code onto this datapad so you may begin reviewing it.” Knockout reached up and took the pad into his servo. Optimus continued, “As long as you are staying with us we will expect you to follow this code to the letter. Let me know if you have any questions concerning the contents.”

Knockout looked down and saw the datapad was already powered up and the first few lines were on the display.

_The Autobot Code_

_Prelude:_

_Freedom is the right of all sentient beings..._

Ahh. He could already tell this read was going to be riveting.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took me so long. I struggled somewhat in getting the last bit just right- Bulkhead is not one of my favorite characters, but I still think I managed to do him some justice :) So Enjoy!
> 
> Thoughts and criticisms are encouraged and appreciated

_Section 19, Subsection 84:_

_On the subject of identifying and collecting fallen soldiers; It is the stance of the Autobot Council that the frames of all those whose sparks are extinguished in the name of the Autobot cause be treated with the utmost respect. Each soldier's preference for the handling of their frame (ie. melted, scrapped, broken down for parts, ect.) is to be coded into their mainframe to be accessed at the time of-_

Knockout lowered the datapad and slumped back in his seat, “Uuuugh. Frag! I don't know how much more I can take...”

“Oh, well since you're giving up-” Ratchet looked up from his work station, “Should I fire up the groundbridge?”

Knockout shot a quick glare over at the other medic, but then raised the pad again and groaned, “Don't chastise me for complaining. It's the one joy I have left.”

“Well I'm not interested in hearing you whine like a sparkling.” Ratchet looked back down at his tools, “So keep it to yourself.”

Letting out a long, exasperated vent, Knockout finally went back to reading. He found himself just skimming the next few subsections. Whatever. He doubted that even the Autobots themselves knew the entire code, so he wasn't stressing about it; not like Prime was going to give him a quiz or something.

Three days had passed since he'd accepted Prime's offer and so far he'd been keeping his end of the deal. He'd spent the entire length of time either reading the slagging code or recording data... it was so very dull. He wondered if he'd ever get the chance to drive out in the open again without worrying about being blown up. In fact, he could hardly remember the last time he'd had a good race... it would be a relief when he finally got to _do_ something rather than sit around all day.

As his thoughts started to wander again, the main computer let off a loud tone. Ratchet turned and looked at the screen before pressing a command on the console. “Agent Fowler. Thank you for getting back to me.”

“ _Sure thing, Ratchet._ ” Fowler's voice came from the speakers as a picture of him appeared on the display. “ _Sorry I couldn't take your call earlier, it's been... hectic over here to say the least. So what have you got for me?_ ”

“What I have is twelve different locations of Decepticon mining activity.” Ratchet pulled up a file on the computer, “Four of which are... Well, they're _close_ to human civilian populations. It shouldn't be much cause for concern: the Decepticons don't seem to be very interested in humans... but I wanted to notify you anyway.”

“ _And these locations, you got 'em from-?_ ”

“Knockout provided the information.”

“ _Ahh, of course. Prime said he's 'switched sides' right?_ ... _You sure you can trust him?_ ”

“So far the intel he's provided hasbeen genuine... and _helpful_ as well.”

“Careful, Ratchet.” Knockout smirked, looking up from the pad again. “It almost sounded like you were saying something nice about me.”

Ratchet only gave an annoyed glance back at him, then returned to his conversation. “The team has been able to confirm that five of the locations are accurate, and they are looking into the other seven.”

“ _Looking in to?_ ” Fowler repeated,“ _Does that mean you're taking them out?_ ”

“No, no. Some of them are far too large for us to interfere with. Besides that, they are staffed by mining class Decepticons- not soldiers.” Ratchet continued, “And if we started attacking their miners the Decepticons would no doubt want to retaliate... Perhaps by attacking _human_ civilians... No, for now we are just ensuring that the mines are actually there in case we _do_ find reason to take action against them.”

“ _Alright, since you put it that way, it's probably best if_ we _don't take action either. We'll just keep this info under file, then... Thanks for keeping me updated, Doc._ ”

“Of course, Agent Fowler. I'll let you get back to it then.”

“ _Oh, before I go I should give you a heads up-_ ” Fowler paused, the sound of some shuffling paper coming through the connection, “ _I mean, it's nothing certain yet. The boys are still investigating, but there have been a series of_ instances _at military hubs and weapon depots these past few weeks. We think they may be connected somehow._ ”

“How does it concern us? Are the Decepticons involved?”

“ _No, no not 'Cons. Actually, we have some reason to believe it might involve MECH._ ”

Knockout's helm perked up at the name.

“MECH?” Ratchet sounded doubtful, “We haven't seen any activity from them in months...”

“ _That's why we're not sure if it_ _'_ _s really them._ ” Fowler continued,“ _I just want you lot to be careful- I know they're interested in Cybertronian tech. So just keep an eye out for anything suspicious. I'll let you know when we get more information._ ”

Ratchet thanked Fowler and cut off their connection. When he turned around to go back to work he saw Knockout had sat up and was looking at him very seriously.

“Those MECH humans...” he began, “what do you know about them?”

“Don't concern yourself with that.” Ratchet waved his question away and picked up his tools again. “Just worry about reading up on the Code for now.”

“I'm a lot more interested in hearing about these humans who apparently want to dissect us,” Knockout insisted, “and since they got pretty close before-”

Ratchet looked up again, interrupting him, “Oh I see. So this is about... Well, you're out of luck.” he said, “Their leader, Silas, was killed a number of weeks ago by Agent Fowler and Optimus.”

“Prime killed a human?”

“Well no. Not directly... he was crushed to death when a roof caved in.” Ratchet looked back down to his work station, “Regardless, we hit them pretty hard in that last encounter. It's unlikely that they would recover so quickly if at all. So don't get any farfetched ideas about revenge.”

“Hrmm...” Knockout grumbled and slouched back again. “No need to be so terse. What's wrong with wanting a little revenge?”

“If you'd keep reading you might find out.” Ratchet snapped without looking up.

Rather than argue, Knockout let out a resigned vent. He was about to look back down to the datapad when Bulkhead and Bumblebee came zooming into the room through the hallway entrance.

“Alright!!” Miko leapt from Bulkhead's passenger seat and slammed his door shut behind her, “I missed having youpick me up from school, Bulk!”

Bulkhead let out a low chuckle as he transformed, “Well I've missed picking you up!”

Behind them Raf quietly hopped out of Bee's backseat. The scout promptly transformed into his robot mode and approached Ratchet.

“We should celebrate you getting back on your feet again!” Miko said as she practically leapt up the ladder to the platform. She ran over to the couch and picked up the television remote, “There's a monster truck rally on today! We should watch it and try to reenact some of the stunts in the gym later-”

“Err... Don't they warn _against_ trying that stuff at home?” Bulkhead interrupted.

“Pshh, those warnings are for _humans_.” Miko waved his concern away, “They don't apply to Cybertronians. Especially not Wreckers!”

“I'm afraid that will have to wait,” Ratchet said. Miko looked over to him. The medic had moved over to the groundbridge and was fiddling with the controls. “There are still seven mine coordinates that need to be confirmed, and I'd rather not send Bumblebee by himself.”

“Oh...” Miko returned her gaze to Bulkhead, now looking a bit worried. “You're not gonna be fighting 'Cons, are you Bulk? I mean picking me up from school is one thing, but-”

“Don't worry, Miko.” Ratchet turned around to face her. “This is strictly reconnaissance. We just want to observe, to verify that the mine is there and still active.” He then looked to Bulkhead. “There is to be _no_ engaging in combat with the miners. Understand?”

“Alright I got it, Ratch. No fighting!”

“Good. Now you two get going.” Ratchet pulled the lever and the groundbridge whirred to life. “I'm sending you a few kliks away from the location just in case- We don't know how far out their activity stretches from the base coordinates. Let me know when you need a return bridge.”

“ _Bzzeeeboooowhirrr!_ ” Bumblebee offered a thumbs up, transformed, and headed into the portal.

“You go ahead and start the monster trucks without me.” Bulkhead smiled at Miko, then turned to the groundbridge. “I'll be back before you know it.” With that he transformed and zoomed through the bridge after Bumblebee.

Miko frowned as the light faded from the machine and the portal disappeared. “Hrmm. Yeah. Okay...” she moaned, kicking her foot lightly against the railing. “It's not as fun watching alone though...” She looked up as Raf came up the ramp to the platform. “Hey Raf! You'll watch the rally with me, yeah?”

“Actually, Miko... I was going to catch up on a bit of coding while Bee's out.” Raf shrugged his shoulders.

Miko sighed dramatically. “Well you're no fun!” She hesitated for a moment then looked to Ratchet-

“No.”

“I didn't even ask-”

“NO.”

“Urrrrrrgh!” Miko groaned and spun around, stomping back towards the couch. As she did, she paused and looked over at Knockout across the room. He seemed to sense her gaze and turned his optics towards her. There was a brief moment of them sharing a tense glare, but then Miko turned away. “Pshh. Yeah right...” she grumbled as she fell onto the couch.

* * *

As they exited the groundbridge, Bulkhead and Bumblebee found themselves driving deep within a forested area. Luckily, the trees were tall and somewhat far apart so they could easily maneuver between them as they drove on.

“You got the coordinates, Bee?” Bulkhead called out as they drove

“ _BzzoopbuzzEEP._ ”

“Alright, you lead the way then.”

“B _ZZZzzz!_ ” Bumblebee replied, and zoomed ahead. After going about a half a mile Bumblebee slowed down and transformed back into his robot mode. “ _ZOOooopwhirrrrrbuzz_.”

Bulkhead transformed as well and stepped up next to him, “Good idea. Less likely to hear us comin' on foot.”

The two continued onward for awhile, finally slowing as they headed up a slight hill. “ _Boopbeepzzzrrr_.” Bumblebee buzzed quietly, pointing up ahead. Ducking behind some trees and underbrush, the two 'Bots peeked over the top of the hill they were on. The other side was a sharp incline into a clearing walled off on three sides. The only way in besides climbing the rocks was a path leading back into the forest to the left. Along the right side, a gaping hole marked the entrance of the mine they were looking for.

“That must be it.” Bulkhead said quietly. “How do we tell if there's still 'Cons in there?”

“ _ZoopbuzzWHIRRRRR_. _BEEPboopzzzZZZZrrrr?_ ”

“Urgh... so we just have to wait then.” Bulkhead rested his chin in his servo, “Scrap. Who knows how long before one of 'em comes outta-?”

Suddenly Bulkhead was cut off by a ground-shaking explosion!

The two Autobots instinctively ducked lower. They continued watching as a small plume of teal flames erupted from the entrance of the mine. It was quiet for another moment until Bulkhead finally spoke up again. “What was that?” he whispered.

“ _Bzzzoobuzz?_ ”

Before Bulkhead could respond the sound of blaster fire met their audio receptors. “That don't sound like an accident to me.” Bulkhead grumbled, leaning over the edge a bit more. “What's goin' on down there? Who could they possibly be-?” As he spoke, a lone miner suddenly stumbled out from the entrance. The 'Con ran for the trees, nearly falling as he scrambled forward. He only made it about halfway there, however, as a rain of red blaster fire came from the mine entrance striking him in the back and bringing him down.

A Vehicon soldier hurried out of the entrance and up to the miner. Rather than offering help, he kicked the miner onto his back and planted a pede on his chest. The terrified miner lifted his servos in surrender as the Vehicon shoved his blaster into the smaller 'Con's face.

“S-stop! Don't- NO PLEASE!!”

It did nothing to deter his attacker- The Vehicon ignored the pleas and fired!

Stepping off the smoldering frame of the miner, the 'Con looked towards the trees and shouted: “Mine secured! Ready for the procurement team.”

A moment after he'd spoken, a chorus of engines could be heard from the nearby trees and a group of trucks and jeeps equipped with turrets and missile launchers rolled forward into the clearing.

“Wait a minute... is that-?” Bulkhead started to ask, but his thoughts were confirmed just as he was about to finish. “-MECH!!” The vehicles had rolled to a stop and humans garbed in that familiar black, goggled uniform had jumped out. He and Bumblebee watched as two more Vehicons exited the mine entrance, carrying armfuls of energon cubes. The humans opened the backs of the trucks and the Vehicons began loading the cubes into them.

“What's going on? Has MECH got some 'Cons on their side or something?” Bulkhead glanced over at Bee who merely shrugged in response.

“NO! NO PUT ME DOWN!!”

The Autobots looked back into the clearing just as another 'Con came out of the mine with a Vehicon and an Eradicon slung over each shoulder. Bulkhead's jaw dropped as he recognized him-

“Breakdown?!!”

He tossed down the two Decepticons- The Vehicon laid where he fell, already offline. The Eradicon was online but one of his legs was badly crushed and leaking energon. He started trying to slide away, but the two of the standing Vehicons held him still. He tried to struggle but it was doing him no good. “Let go! STOP! Breakdown, wh-why are you doing this?!!”

Bulkhead and Bumblebee watched in stunned silence as the group of humans hurried over. One of them fired a canister at the Eradicon's back which stuck and shot a powerful electric charge through him causing the 'Con to collapse. They gathered around as Breakdown shifted the Eradicon over, pointing at his wings, apparently speaking but the 'Bots couldn't quite make it out.

But Bulkhead wasn't interested in what was going on anymore. He had the tree next to him in a powerful grip as he tried to hold back his anger. “That slaggin' two-faced 'Con!” he grumbled, “I shoulda known he was lyin' about Breakdown bein' scrapped!”

Bumblebee reached over and placed his servo on Bulkhead's, “ _Bzzzzooop!_ ”

“Whattya mean ' _we don't know that?_ ' He's standin' right there!” Bulkhead said, still speaking in hushed tones. “And I'm about one klik away from getting' down there and-”

“ _BOOOPZZRR!! whirrrzzzzdooZZZOOoop_ ”

Bulkhead let out an angry growl. “Yeah I remember...” he let out an irritated vent and continued, “Fine. Let's call Ratchet... I don't know what's goin' on here, but-”

Once again, before Bulkhead could finish he was cut off by an explosion. This one, however, was directly behind them! The two Autobots were suddenly flung forward by the force of it and went tumbling down the rocky hill into the clearing!

Bulkhead groaned and looked up after he rolled to a stop. Up on top of the hill where they'd just been, another MECH truck had pulled up. Scrap! They should have been paying closer attention!

“ _BEEPBOOZZZWHIRRR!!!_ ” Bulkhead felt Bumblebee grab his arm and try to yank him up. He looked around and saw the MECH agents had hurried over and were aiming their electric canons at them!

“Let's get outta here!” Bulkhead quickly scrambled to his feet and made a dash for the trees. Bumblebee whirred his agreement and hurried after him. Two canisters just barely missed him, but unfortunately a third found Bumblebee in the side. He let out a distressed whirr as it released its debilitating charge into his frame and he collapsed.

“BEE!!” Bulkhead whirled around and went back for the scout, but hesitated as the canons were quickly trained on him. Rather than stand around and wait for them to fire, he transformed and charged at the humans. Luckily, they decided to jump out of the way rather than fire.

He wasn't about to leave Bee behind, but he couldn't very well drag the scout out of there with these guys firing on him... he was going to have to try and fight them off. And he knew just where he wanted to start. Bulkhead swerved around and drove straight towards Breakdown.

He transformed and leapt forward, pulling his servo back to strike. Though, rather than meet his attack, Breakdown stepped aside and Bulkhead stumbled past him. Huh. He hadn't been expecting that. Usually when he attacked Breakdown, he meet force with force. Bulkhead didn't waste any time dwelling on that, though. He quickly spun back around and made another swing for Breakdown's frame. A swing that was also dodged.

This was weird. It wasn't what he was used to. As he continued trying to land a blow on the 'Con, he was met with more ducks and side-steps rather than blocks or counter-attacks. It was... _frustrating_.

“Come on, Breakdown!” Bulkhead transformed out his wrecking ball, “I'm not here to _dance_ with ya! Fight back!!”

Bulkhead swung his arm forward. This time, however, Breakdown didn't dodge him. Instead he reached up with both his servos and caught the attack. Bulkhead tried to draw back, but he was holding fast.

“Ha ha ha!!” Bulkhead felt a chill run through his frame at the laughter. That was... that was _not_ Breakdown's laughter. But it was familiar. Whose voice was that? He looked up and met the yellow optics with his own. “Well, if you insist!”

Bulkhead was suddenly thrown backwards as Breakdown lifted his leg, giving a powerful kick square in the Autobot's chassis. He let out a quiet groan as he pushed himself up again.

Breakdown stepped closer, glaring down at the Autobot with his servos on his hips. “You're pretty strong, Autobot. What a shame you're such a clumsy fighter.” He continued to speak in that foreign voice. “But don't worry. We'll soon be able to put that powerful frame of yours to some better use.”

Suddenly Bulkhead recognized the voice. The realization made him draw back in horror- “ _Silas_?!!”

The only response he received was an electric canister latching onto his chassis and shocking his systems. He fell back against the ground as his visuals began to dim and finally faded out.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Didn’t take me a month this time. So proud of myself. I mean I did have a bit of a cliffhanger last time, so it’s only fair.

“Welcome back you two. How did it go?”

Arcee and Optimus stepped through the groundbridge and into the base. “We found the mine alright.” Arcee said as she continued forward. “Big one too. You could see the energon sprouting from the ground a whole 2 kliks outside their work area.”

“A large operation, then?” Ratchet continued, powering down the bridge. “And you didn't have any trouble staying hidden?”

“The majority of the work appeared to be taking place underground,” Optimus replied, “and we were fortunate that the surrounding patrols were confined to the area around the entrance.”

“This mine might be a good one to slip into and snatch a bunch of processed energon,” Arcee added. “Place that big, who knows if they'll even notice?”

“Oh they'll notice, alright.” The Autobots looked over as Knockout spoke up.

“What makes you say that?” Arcee asked.

Knockout lowered his datapad and met her gaze. “The mines are strictly maintained- _especially_ the big ones. Processed energon is accounted for to the cube, and squad leaders send in hourly status reports to the 'Cons' resident bureaucrat.”

“Hmm...” Arcee crossed her arms across her chassis, “I see. So if there's too much missing, they'd get suspicious and probably bulk up the security, making it harder to sneak off with _anything_...”

“It might be more prudent to collect the surrounding crystals and process them ourselves,” Ratchet said.

“You _could_ do that.” Knockout lifted his datapad again to continue reading. “Though if you were careful about it and took just the right amount, they might be inclined to blame the miners instead. Some of the less sensible ones have been known to sneak extra energon.”

Optimus spoke up again, tilting his helm at Knockout. “It seems as though we would benefit greatly if we better understood the Decepticon ranks themselves.”

“You want me to write about the _Vehicons?_ ” Knockout rolled his optics. “Ugh. But they're such tedious creatures... Honestly. I'm surprised their organizer hasn't thrown themself off the ship already.” Despite his griping, Knockout placed the datapad in his servo down and picked up a second one next to him to start writing. “Just to warn you, this might be the most mind-numbing report you'll ever read.”

“Ha! I doubt that.” Arcee laughed and stepped over towards the hallway entrance, starting to leave. “ _You've_ never read a report by Ultra Magnus.”

“Regardless of how mundane it may seem, we appreciate your efforts, Knockout.” Optimus cut in. “The information you have provided so far has great value. You have been quite helpful.”

Knockout gave a knowing smirk, but didn't look up from his datapad, “That's me, alright. Helpful to a fault.” His tone obviously implied he was teasing.

Just as Knockout finished this sentence, the computer let off a three toned beep. A moment later, the attention in the room flew over to the screen as a long, distressed _BEEEEP_ came through the speakers. Arcee spun around and ran back into the room. Raf pushed his laptop off his legs and hurried over to the platform railing. The only one who seemed to be unsure of what was happening was Miko.

She pulled her gaze off the television and looked over, very confused, as Ratchet rushed over to the console.

“Bumblebee!” Ratchet shouted, pressing down on the communicator. “What's wrong?!”

“ _BZZEEPBOOZZ!!wwWWRRRZZOOPdeeeDZZEEPDOOboopBEEPwhrrr!!!_ ”

“Wha- S-slow down, Bee! I can't understand you!” Ratchet tried to speak over the scout. Bumblebee stopped so as to let Ratchet speak, however he continued to let off a slow, quiet whirr somewhat reminiscent of a whine. “Just stay calm! I'll send you a groundbri-”

“ _BEEPboozzZZRRR!_ ”

“You _can't_?” Ratchet repeated, “Are you injured? Do you require backup?!”

“ _BEEP!!_ ”

“I'm locking on to your coordinates now.” Ratchet turned to the groundbridge controls and began typing in commands. Behind him, Miko ran up and stood beside Raf, the both of them looking worried up at the computer screen.

“What's going on?” Miko called out, “Is Bulkhead with you? Is he okay?”

A shaky whirr came as the response. Raf looked up at Miko sadly, “He... he says he doesn't know.”

“What do you _mean_ you don't know?!” She shouted in a rage, “You were supposed to stay together! What happened?!!”

“Miko! Not now!” Arcee shot a quick glare over at the human, then turned quickly back to Ratchet as the medic reached for the groundbridge activation.

“Starting up the bridge _now_ _,_ ” Ratchet said pulling the lever.“Hang in there, Bumblebee; the team's on their way!”

Optimus and Arcee quickly made for the portal, but Arcee paused and glanced back. “Knockout, come on! We might need you on this one,” she called.

“What?! Whoa, hang on-” Knockout held up his servos defensively. “I have no problem being helpful with datapads, but if you think I'm going to keep acting as 'Con bait-”

“You're not coming as _bait._ ” Arcee interrupted him. “You're coming as backup. Now get your aft in gear; Bee might need a medic!” With that, she spun back around and ran after Optimus through the groundbridge.

Knockout hesitated for another moment, but after letting out an angry huff through his vents, he stood and hurried after her.

As he came through the portal, he saw they had waited for him on the other side. Once they caught sight of him following, they turned, weapons at the ready, and continued forward. Almost immediately they found themselves at the top of a sharp, rocky incline. Looking down into the ravine, they spotted a yellow figure laying against the opposite end of the clearing below.

“Bumblebee!” Arcee called out to the scout and he looked up. He raised one arm slightly to wave to them, but then let it fall back to his side, exhausted.

The three of them slid down the rocky slope, being sure to stay on the lookout and keeping their weapons at the ready. Arcee and Optimus hurried over to Bumblebee, but Knockout slowed and took a long look around the clearing. There were numerous tire tracks leading in and out of the forest to their left, and just in front of the mine entrance to the right, six Decepticon miners were lying face down, all lined up in a row. In fact, from the markings in the dirt, it looked as though Bumblebee had been next to them, but he had dragged himself away... Whatever this was, it sure didn't look like it had been a fight.

Knockout was pulled out of his thoughts by Optimus calling him. “Knockout! Bumblebee requires medical attention!”

Knockout tore his gaze away from the offlined miners and hurried over to the Autobots. Arcee had one servo on Bee’s shoulder to calm him, but she kept her optics trained on the mine entrance. “Bumblebee, what happened to Bulkhead?” she asked. She was trying to speak gently but she was clearly worried.

“ _bzzzzEEEEPOOOooooo…_ ” Bumblebee beeped sadly, then brought a servo up to his helm and let out a quiet whirr.

“Dizzy, eh?” Knockout knelt down and took Bumblebee's chin in his servo, shifting his helm up to get a better look at his face. “Hmm. And your optics look a bit dim... There isn't any apparent external damage, though. What do your internal readouts say?”

Bumblebee brushed Knockout's servo off and turned his helm away and started to whine. “ _WhrrEEEP!_ _Wrrrzzooop..._ ”

“Ratchet isn't here. _I_ am.” Knockout tried to reclaim Bee's chin, but the scout pushed him away again.

“ _WHRRRRZZOOOOOOP!!!_ ”

Knockout gave a frustrated groan, then looked back up to Optimus. The Prime glanced from Bumblebee to Knockout and back again, then brought a servo to the comm on his audio receptor. “Ratchet, we require the groundbridge. Bumblebee needs to return to base.”

A moment later, the portal opened up just in front of the group.

“Knockout, you escort Bumblebee back.” Optimus instructed, “Arcee and I will remain here and investigate; hopefully we will find some clue to Bulkhead's whereabouts.”

“You’re the boss.” Knockout said flatly. With a bit of help from Arcee, he hauled Bumblebee up onto his pedes and helped support the scout on his shoulder. Bee was leaning very heavily on him, though, and Knockout gave a disgruntled huff as they shuffled through the groundbridge.

Arriving back at the base, they only managed a few steps across the threshold before Bumblebee's legs gave out. Knockout stumbled, trying to keep them both upright, but found himself starting to be pulled down with him. Ratchet hurried over to lend a hand, and the two medics managed to carry Bee to the medical table together.

“Bumblebee!” Ratchet lifted the scout's helm so he was looking into his optics. “Come on, stay with me, now. What happened to you?”

Bee let out a quiet buzz in response.

“You can't remember?”

“He did mention being dizzy,” Knockout said. He was brushing off his shoulder and checking for scratches. Once he'd finished he stepped towards Ratchet's medical supplies. “I'll fix up an energon drip. He'll probably be needing it.”

Ratchet muttered an agreement and went to pick up his scanner. As he did, he noticed Raf was standing beside his equipment table, looking worried at Bumblebee. “Hey, Ratchet,” he mumbled, “can I sit with Bumblebee? I mean, I wouldn't be in the way, would I?”

“Of course not, Rafael.” Ratchet smiled and bent down, allowing Raf to step into his hand, then lifted the human up onto the medical berth. He hopped off and quickly took his place next to Bumblebee's helm where the scout could see him, to which Bee offered an appreciative whirr.

“Now, let's take a look here...” Ratchet mumbled, lifting the scanner to run it over Bumblebee's frame. Once he'd scanned him from helm to pede, Ratchet lifted it to look at the results. It took a moment to process, but when he began reading the output he appeared confused. However, his expression quickly changed to one of concern. He rushed over to where Knockout was just finishing filling a canister with energon. “Knockout, I need that energon _NOW_!” He shouted, snatching it from his servos.

Knockout was slightly taken aback, but just placed his now empty servos on his hips as he watched Ratchet run back over and scramble to hook Bumblebee up to the drip. “ _Alright!_ Slag, I was going as fast as I could...” he grumbled. “What's the problem?”

“Bumblebee is practically running on fumes!” Ratchet explained as he attached the cables to Bumblebee's chassis. Once the energon started to flow, he looked back over at Knockout. “You should have mentioned that he had spilled _that much_ energon!” he scolded, “I mean, it should have been pretty obvious considering how much-”

“Excuse _you!_ ” Knockout interrupted. “What kind of medic do you think I am? Of course I would have mentioned it... but there was no spilled energon at the site.” Knockout stepped closer, pointing down at Bumblebee's frame. “Besides that, there's hardly a scratch on him. Shouldn't you be trying to find _where_ he bled out from instead of chastising me?”

Ratchet grumbled something insulting under his breath, then turned his attention back to Bumblebee and started looking him over for injuries. “Bee, try to think-” he instructed as he worked. “Do you recall anything at all from what happened? Hopefully that fresh energon will help you process better.”

Bumblebee stayed quiet for a moment then just whirred sadly.

“Well, what's the _last_ thing you remember?” Raf asked., “Maybe you can try to work your way up from there.”

“ _BZZZzzzoooop..._ ”

“Okay, so you found the mine,” Raf continued, patting Bee's shoulder reassuringly. “Is there anything else? You don't have to think of your visuals first, try thinking of some other senses too.”

“ _zzzzzzoooo.... bzzz.... BEEP! BOOZZUURRRRWHRRR!_ ”

“An explosion?” Ratchet repeated. “Were you and Bulkhead caught up in it?”

“ _BuzzzZZZZ. Whrrrrrzzzzzoooo_.”

“What do you mean? Did you witness an accident in the mine?”

Bumblebee buzzed quietly and shook his head, but suddenly he shot upright, nearly tearing the cable from his chest! “ _BEEPBOOZZZWHRRR!!!_ ”

“Bumblebee, stay calm!” Ratchet pushed the scout back down. “What are you talking about?”

“ _zoopBOOPBEEPwhrr!_ ” Bumblebee then looked over at Knockout, his expression becoming firm. “ _beepZZZZZzzzrrrr._ ”

“What?” Knockout's optics widened for a moment, but his surprise was almost instantly replaced by anger. “Is that supposed to be a _joke_?!” He shouted. “Well, nobody is laughing!!”

Bee just replied with a stern beep.

“What is it?” They all looked down to see Miko had run over to join them. “What did he say?”

“He said... that Breakdown was there.” Raf explained.

“NO. He _wasn't_ _,_ ” Knockout insisted, folding his arms across his chassis. “He couldn't be. It's not possible... He's just not remembering correctly.”

“Bumblebee, are you sure?” Ratchet asked, pausing in his check up on Bee's frame. “Because what you're saying-”

“ _WHRRRR!!_ ” Bumblebee interrupted him with an affirmation. Then continued, “ _BEEPboopwhhhhhrrrzzZZZZRRrrrtt! ZZZZrrrrrboop._ ”

“Breakdown was working with MECH?!” Ratchet repeated.

Knockout let out a short laugh, “Well now you _know_ he's making it up,” he grumbled. “Honestly. Breakdown and MECH...” He paused for a moment then shook his helm. “No... no that's impossible. You... you were probably just caught up in that explosion you mentioned.”

“That doesn't explain the sudden depletion of his energon levels,” Ratchet said. “And it doesn't explain _this_ either.” He continued, pressing his servo against Bumblebee's lower back. The scout let out a distressed beep at the pressure and shifted away.

“What is it?” Raf called, unable to see over Bee's frame.

“There's a puncture wound on his side here,” Ratchet replied. “It's small, but it appears as though his energon was siphoned off through it... This could hardly be the work of the Decepticons.” The medic paused and stood up straight. “I don't know how, but it appears as though MECH _has_ returned.”

“Wait, MECH is back?” Miko asked, “And they're crashing Decepticon mines and draining _living_ bots' fuel? But what for?”

Ratchet looked over to Knockout somewhat accusingly. “Perhaps because they've made friends who run on energon.”

“That-!” Knockout began, but then looked away and continued in a mumble. “...That doesn't make any sense... If Breakdown was... but then why wouldn't he...?”

“Regardless of his involvement, this is still highly disturbing news,” Ratchet said, moving over to the computer. “It means that Bulkhead could very well be in the clutches of MECH right now. We need to locate him immediately. Hopefully they aren't within any shielded areas yet and we can find his signal.”

Miko followed Ratchet and stood back to look up at the screen. “What if they already are?” She demanded. “Then how are we gonna find Bulkhead?!”

“Let's not get ahead of ourselves, Miko.” Ratchet glanced down at her as he typed on the console. “I'll check to see if I can't locate him first. _Then_ we can start thinking of alternatives.”

It was quiet for another moment as Ratchet finished typing out the command, then the computer let out a quiet tone. A map appeared on the screen as well as a blue beacon indicating Bulkhead's position. The signal was moving, but still traceable.

“Oh good.” Ratchet let out a sigh of relief. “We can still locate him.”

“Alright, so then call back Arcee and Prime.” Knockout took out his electric staff from where it was clipped to his side. “We'll go save him and sort out these MECH characters.”

Ratchet glanced back at Knockout as he spoke. “Hmm. Actually...” He looked away again, starting to type out the command to contact Optimus. “It would probably be best if only Arcee and Optimus took on this mission,” he mumbled.

“Hold on!” Ratchet felt himself suddenly being pulled away from the controls. He turned back to see Knockout had his servo planted hard on his shoulder and had yanked him backwards. “I'm not going to sit around the base if there's a chance my partner is out there.”

Ratchet roughly pushed Knockout away and shot a fierce glare at the medic, “His presence is preciselywhy you should _not_ be on this mission!” He shouted. “You're too close to the situation- you might not be willing to...”

When Ratchet trailed off, Knockout goaded him on: “Willing to _WHAT_?”

Ratchet stiffened up and turned back to the console. “Given the circumstances, you might not be willing to do... whatever it might take _._ ”

Knockout lowered his helm threateningly. “Oh, I see. So you expect me to just step aside and let you fragging Autobots _kill_ my partner?!”

“That was not what I said.”

“But it's what you _meant_!”

“What I _meant_ was that Breakdown could potentially be our adversary on this mission! If you were unwilling to engage him it could jeopardize the rescue!” Ratchet spun back around, meeting Knockout's gaze. “Our concern as Autobots is for Bulkhead's safety!”

“WELL _MINE_ IS FOR BREAKDOWN'S!!”

“I knew it!!” Knockout and Ratchet looked down at Miko. “I _knew_ this would happen!” She continued, pointing an accusing finger up at Knockout. “He's choosing Breakdown over us! I told you: he's _NOT_ an Autobot, and he never will be!!”

Knockout glared down at the human, his servos clenched angrily, one of them around his staff. He opened his mouth, probably to yell at her, but then stopped. After a quiet moment, a smirk spread across his face, replacing the scowl.

“You know what?” He turned to Ratchet. “You're right.”

Before he could react, Knockout had pulled back his staff and lunged it forward, digging the prongs into Ratchet's neck cables and releasing a debilitating shock!

“ _BRRRZEEEEEEP!!!!_ ”

Knockout glanced back as Bumblebee sat up. The scout tore the cable from his chest and stood up, about to attack. Before he could, Knockout grabbed the offlined Ratchet as he fell and spun around, hurling the medic at Bumblebee. They collided with a powerful _CLANG_ and Bumblebee fell back onto the medical table with Ratchet on top of him. He struggled in vain to lift Ratchet off him, but he was still too low on energy to manage it.

Knockout watched the struggling scout for a moment as he beeped and whirred angrily, but then turned to the groundbridge controls. “I bet _this_ is against your precious Autobot Code, isn't it?” He said, typing in the coordinates from the map. Once he'd finished, he pulled the lever, powering on the groundbridge. As he stepped towards the portal he glanced back again. “Well, sorry. But I've lost Breakdown once... I'm not about to let it happen a second time.”

With that, he ran through the groundbridge and disappeared.

After a minute, the bridge powered down automatically. Once it had, Raf glanced out from behind Ratchet's scanner where he'd been hiding. “Is he gone...?” He mumbled, looking up at Bee.

He let out an irritated whirr to confirm, and Raf jumped up and ran over to try and help him up. They both started pushing Ratchet, trying to make the medic slide off but they were hardly even able to budge him.

“Miko!” Raf called as he pushed, “Give us a hand up here!”

There was no response.

“Miko?” Raf stopped and looked over to the floor by the main console where Miko had been standing before. There was no sign of the girl. “MIKO?! Where did-?” he stopped mid sentence as it dawned on him and he looked over at the groundbridge. “Oh.... Oh _no._ ”


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Weh. This took way too long. Sorry, but writing Miko as not a total brat was hard and took me awhile.

This was a big risk. A big _stupid_ risk, really.

Even more so because he was doing it because of information from an energon-starved scout... one who couldn't even properly remember what had happened to him. What was more, Knockout already knew Breakdown wasn't alive. He had died months ago. He'd felt it in his spark when it happened. And a spark didn't pop back online just like that...

But they never did find a body. And if there was even the tiniest chance, he wasn't about to let the Autobots snatch it away from him.

And clearly they would have. So as Knockout stepped through the groundbridge, he wasn't worrying about how Prime and his 'Bots would react to his actions. The only thing on his mind was finding Breakdown... and if he got to squash a few of those repulsive MECH humans along the way, well that was just icing on the cake.

He came out of the bridge in a sparse, rocky forest. A short incline in front of him led down to a wide but ill-maintained dirt road. In fact it looked entirely deserted. Seemed appropriate they would be coming this way. This MECH group was apparently well versed in staying off the radar of their fellow humans.

Knockout took a few steps towards the road, looking up and down it for the convoy he knew would be coming. As he did, he began running various tactics through his processor. If he just barreled in there and started taking out MECH agents what would Breakdown do? He wouldn't actually _fight_ Knockout for their sake, would he? Although, maybe it would be better to confront Breakdown first rather than immediately start a fight. If they could just talk then surely he could convince Breakdown to come away with him.

Once they were together again... well, it would be just like it used to be; before Starscream had called them back to the ship. Traveling the back roads of the planet in secret, scouting for energon, scaring the scrap out of some wayward humans for a kick. Except this time they wouldn't be with the 'Cons... or the 'Bots for that matter. But they'd be _together_... As he was filling his mind with all these grand ideas and getting his hopes up, he heard a quiet clattering behind him and a small voice:

“Aw scrap!”

Shocked out of his daydream, Knockout spun around to see a few tiny rocks rolling down the hillside and tumbling to a stop just in front of his pedes. His optics traced back up the hill and stopped when he spotted Miko. The girl was sitting on her butt where she'd fallen from dislodging the rocks.

For a moment Knockout didn't react. He couldn't possibly be seeing correctly. Had this annoying pink headed human seriously followed him through the groundbridge? What was she thinking?

Miko scrambled to her feet and took a few steps back, “What're you looking at?!” she shouted. She seemed to be trying to act tough, but Knockout could hear the worry in her voice. After another moment passed where he remained quiet, a smirk finally crossed Knockout's face and he started up the incline towards her.

“I think I'm looking at a very small, very _squishy_ organic who's been riding my tailpipe for over a week. But you know what I'm _not_ looking at?” he began, then paused to take a dramatic glance around. “Any Autobots to stop me from stepping on her like the pest she is.”

“No! Wait DON'T!!”

Knockout stopped just in front of the human and glared down at her, “Oh, are you going to beg now? That's adorable.” He leaned forward over her and lightly pushed her down with one of his digits. “Well go on, then. I'll listen.”

Miko shuffled away a bit but then quickly regained her footing. She stiffened her back, staring up at Knockout. “I'm...” she started, her voice wavering slightly. She paused and collected herself, then continued in a stronger voice, “...I'm not going to beg.” Knockout tilted his helm slightly as she continued. “I don't care what happens to me, but if I get squished then... then nobody is going to help Bulkhead.”

“Ahh so that's why you're here.” Knockout grinned, “You think you've really got a chance out here on the battlefield? Hmmph. I didn't realize you were _that_ stupid.”

“I have to try!” Miko clenched her fists, continuing to glare defiantly at Knockout. “I know you're only interested in saving your own partner. So I had to come along to save _mine_.”

Knockout continued to stare down at her for another moment, wondering what to do with her. Though when he really considered the situation, the Autobots would not take kindly to having one of their humans mashed into a pulp, no matter how annoying she was. So if he _did_ actually go through with it he imagined there might be some payback coming his way... And she was only there because she wanted to look out for her partner. He hated to admit it, but he could sympathize with that sentiment. It was why _he_ was there, after all...

Before he could definitely decide what to do, the rumbling of engines distracted him. He quickly turned his helm back towards the road. They weren't visible yet, but clearly MECH's convoy was close and getting closer.

If he wanted to he certainly could squish the girl before they arrived, but if she screamed she'd give away his location. So if the Autobots and the sentiment weren't persuasion enough that certainly seemed to be. And why go through the trouble? If everything went as planned he'd never see her again anyway!

He gave a short glance down at Miko, then turned away. “Alright, then. I'll let you go _this_ time, human. Just make sure you stay out of my way!” Knockout moved alongside the slope and took up a hiding place behind an outcropping of rocks.

He was able to see a short dust cloud starting to kick up in the distance. They were really close now.

Meanwhile, Miko crawled up onto the rocks and stood glaring at the dust cloud along with him. “Yeah, well... you stay out of _my_ way!” she grumbled, then shot an angry glare at Knockout. “And don't you dare lay a finger on Bulkhead!”

Knockout returned the glare. “As if I'd care enough to bother with that brute.” then he reached over and pushed Miko with his servo, just enough to get her to fall onto her back. “And stay low, would you?! They'd see that hideous color palate of yours a mile away.”

Miko growled, but didn't respond. She only rolled over onto her stomach and crawled forward a bit so as to get a better view over the rocks.

After a very long minute the rumbling of engines was finally accompanied by a visible cloud of dust over the ridge and then the trucks came around the bend. Three covered flatbed trucks with cars armed with missile launchers and turrets bringing up the front and rear of the convoy. Knockout's optics darted to each of the armed vehicles in confusion as they came- these were all jeeps. None of them were Breakdown. After the last one rolled into view he waited, staring down the road hoping more would show- hoping that there would be another chance for Breakdown to show... but that was it.

The convoy passed their hiding place with Knockout still glaring at the corner of rocks they had come around. Miko looked from Knockout to the convoy and back.

“Well?!” she whispered urgently, “are you gonna do something or not?”

Knockout turned quickly to look back at the jeeps. They were starting to pull away from them now... scrap. So Breakdown wasn't with them. This all might have been for nothing... No, that wasn't something he wanted to think about now. It was too late to go back, anyway... Ignoring the dread creeping up in the back of his mind, Knockout stood up fully and planted a pede on the rocks in front of him.

After a shooting a quick glare down at Miko, as if to just enforce the 'stay out of my way' part of their little deal, he pushed off the rocks and jumped down the hillside, transforming into his vehicle mode.

He landed on the slope and turned sharply, fish-tailing onto the dirt road, and then slammed on his accelerator to catch up to the convoy.

The resulting skid and loud roar of his engines wasn't exactly subtle, and the occupants of the last vehicle noticed him immediately. One of the agents in the jeep leapt up and sat himself behind the turret mounted on top. But for someone as fast as Knockout, their wanton spray of bullets was easy to dodge with a little swerving, and even the odd few that managed to strike him were hardly a deterrent.

Knockout caught up to the vehicle and transformed to his robot mode, bringing a pede down hard on the back of the jeep effectively crushing it and blowing out the rear tires. Then he drew back his other leg and punted the turret clean off the top of the jeep! Luckily for the gunman, he had managed to scramble off and out of the way just in time.

The rest of the convoy was still pulling away, so rather than waste time with the humans themselves, Knockout jumped over the disabled vehicle and transformed back to his car mode to keep up the chase. The others had realized the danger as well. The trucks started speeding up to try and get away, while the armed jeeps pulled to the side and slowed to face off with Knockout, aiming their guns at the oncoming sports car.

He was obviously out-gunned, so rather than try to go through them, Knockout swerved back to his right and kept driving high up the side of the rocky hill to try and get around them. As he zoomed past, the jeeps opened fire. Bullets pelted the side of Knockout's frame, but it was merely irritating- not painful. The MECH agents realized this too, apparently, because the bullets stopped rather quickly.

Knockout thought for a moment why they would give up so easily, but then noticed they were arming their missile launchers. As the first missile was fired, Knockout swerved back to the left and onto the road, now driving in front of the jeeps. The missile struck the rocky wall instead and an avalanche of dirt and rocks came pouring down the hillside!

The MECH jeeps slammed on their brakes to avoid being crushed, but before they could stop two of them were swept up in the rockslide and went tumbling off the road! The remaining jeeps were trapped behind the resulting pile of rocks in their path. Knockout watched the jeeps with some smug satisfaction, but then turned his attention up to the three trucks ahead of him.

Knockout drove up the side of the hill again and zoomed forward, passing the three trucks. Then he came back on to the road, swerving around and transforming in one graceful motion. The first truck slammed on its brakes so as not to collide with him. It didn't do much good; once he skidded to a stop the other two trucks slammed right into him from behind!

The truck had stopped not a few yards from where Knockout stood, so he took the last few steps up to the cabin. The driver was rubbing his neck from the impact and a second agent next to him had picked up what seemed to be a radio or communicator and was speaking into it urgently.

“Calling for backup?” Knockout slammed his pede down on the front of the truck. “Good! I can't wait for more of you to show up so I can-”

He was suddenly interrupted as the driver leapt from the vehicle and took aim at him with a large weapon. Knockout just managed to sidestep and watched as the canister he'd fired stuck to the rocky slope behind him, releasing its electric discharge with a few sparks.

Knockout spun back around and glared at the human. “Oh, so you like electricity, huh?” He unclipped his staff from his side and extended it, pointing towards the human. “Well, you're not the only one,” He continued as it crackled to life menacingly.

The agent dropped his cannon and turned to flee. Knockout took a few steps after him, but then noticed two other agents had gotten out of their trucks and started taking aim at him as well. He swung his staff up and managed to deflect the first canister. The second... well, the second didn't come. The MECH agent tried firing but seemed to be having some technical difficulties. Knockout sneered down at the human as he fiddled with his cannon.

Rather than wait for him to fix his weapon, Knockout stepped alongside the truck's cabin and firmly planted a pede on its side. With a powerful kick, he pushed the truck over onto its side and right onto the distracted agent.

Although the resulting scream was rather loud, there was another sound accompanying it. Knockout looked back to the flatbed that had also tipped over- there had been a noticeable groan when it had gone over. He looked around for the rest of the MECH agents and saw they were fleeing back down the road to where the jeeps were trapped... he might as well take a look. Though he already had a good idea.

Grabbing ahold of the tarp covering and yanking it back, he was not at all surprised to see the massive frame of Bulkhead strapped down quite securely to the truck's trailer. He wasn't quite conscious yet, but he seemed to be starting to stir. To help him along, Knockout grabbed beneath the Autobot's jaw and gave him a good shake while shouting, “Hey! Wake up you big oaf!”

Bulkhead let out another low groan and his optics slowly opened. “Uggh... what?” He blinked once or twice before he noticed the red mech standing over him. “Knockout?! Ohh thank Primus you guys found me before-”

“Yeah, don't thank him just yet.” Knockout tightened his grip. “So tell me, is it true? Did you see _Breakdown_?”

Bulkhead's optics widened even further. “Wha- Oh scrap no! No, Knockout it's not what you think! I mean, it _was_ Breakdown but he's-”

“HEY!”

When he heard the familiar voice Bulkhead snapped his helm around to see, pulling his helm out of Knockout's grip. “MIKO?!!”

The girl was skidding down the side of the hill towards them, glaring fiercely at Knockout. She reached the bottom and jogged up to the two of them, looking a bit haggard from running so far. “You... don't you... lay a hand on Bulkhead!” she gasped. She had one arm pointed up at Knockout, though the rest of her body was bent over as she tried to catch her breath.

Bulkhead's optics darted from Miko to Knockout and back again. “What are you- WHAT IS _SHE_ DOING HERE?!!” he screamed finally. “What the FRAG is going on? What have you done?!!”

“Don't change the subject!” Knockout shouted back, “What were you saying? Breakdown is _what?_ And where-?”

Knockout stopped suddenly as the sound of a distant, rumbling engine met his audio receptors. He spun back around to look up the road, and sure enough, coming around a curve up ahead was a dark blue armored car! Ignoring the shouts from Bulkhead to stay back, Knockout hurried forward past the disabled trucks. He might have run all the way up to meet Breakdown, but he stopped when he saw two Vehicons came around the curve following after him.

Meanwhile, Miko had started struggling to get Bulkhead loose. “Don't worry, Bulk,” she grumbled, trying to unhook the massive straps holding him down, “I'll get you outta this thing!”

“No Miko you've gotta go! It's not safe-” Bulkhead tried to protest but Miko continued about trying to free him. He struggled to look back where Knockout had gone to up the road and shouted, “Please, Knockout! You've gotta get Miko outta here!”

Knockout wasn't listening, though. He was staring at the three cars quickly approaching him. In one hand he was still clutching his staff tightly, very earnestly hoping he wouldn't have to use it... but the Vehicons... What were they doing here? This didn't bode well... As if this situation weren't weird enough already.

After what seemed like ages, Breakdown stopped about fifty feet from Knockout. The Vehicons slowed to a stop behind him as well and all three of them transformed. Knockout took a cautious step forward, “Breakdown?” he offered, raising one servo. “Breakdown... it's me, Knockout. You... you _remember_ me, don't you?”

Breakdown stared at him for a moment quite blankly. Then he finally started forward again. Knockout kept his servo extended to him hopefully... Breakdown stopped just in front of Knockout and looked down at the servo. Then he looked up again, meeting Knockout's optics as he reached forward, taking ahold of Knockout's servo and interlacing their digits.

For a brief moment Knockout was elated. He relaxed the vice-like grip he'd had on his staff and allowed a smile to form on his face... maybe this would work out like he'd hoped after all.

Then he felt the grip on his servo tighten painfully! He cried out and tried to pull away, but he was being held fast. His optics darted back up, angrily looking for an explanation, only to see a nasty smirk plastered across Breakdown's face.

“But of course.” came Silas' voice, “How could I forget _you_ , Knockout?”

He only paused to enjoy the look of horror on Knockout's face for a second before he drew back his fist, swinging it forward with tremendous force and sending Knockout sprawling on to the road! Before he could even regain his composure from the blow, he suddenly found the charged end of his staff being shoved into his neck.

Once Knockout was offline, Silas lifted the staff away and stepped over him towards the trucks. Miko was still trying to free Bulkhead as he pleaded with her to run. As Silas approached the two of them looked up.

“Well, what have we here?” Silas began, glaring down at Miko, “Another of the Autobots' little friends?”

Miko finally stopped trying to release Bulkhead and began backing away.

“Leave the girl alone!” Bulkhead shouted. “She's got nothing to do with your sick experiments-”

“ _I'll_ be the judge of that!” Silas interrupted Bulkhead, then jabbed his chassis with the end of Knockout's staff! Bulkhead shuddered for a moment as the shock ran through him, then went limp.

“NO! BULKHEAD!!” Miko tried to run back up to the 'Bot but suddenly something caught her arm. She looked back to see the MECH agents had returned and two of them had her in their grasp.

“What should we do with her, sir?” one of the agents asked, looking up at Silas. “And the red robot-?”

Silas glanced back at Knockout, now being dragged over by the two Vehicons. “Bring them along,” he said. “They both may be of some use yet.” Then he grabbed ahold of the toppled truck and set it upright. “Now get this convoy back on track! If these two were able to locate us that means others might not be far behind. I don't want to lose any of this cargo!”

“HE IS NOT YOUR _CARGO!_ HE'S MY FRIEND!” Miko screamed, struggling and kicking at the agents holding her. Her efforts were to no avail, however, and they began to drag her away. “NO! No, let go of me! BULKHEAD!!”

Silas let out a quiet chuckle as he watched the agents tie her wrists and shove her into the cabin of one of the trucks while she squirmed. “I wouldn't be too concerned about your robot toy, little girl.” he said, “You really should be worried about yourself.”


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oops. I updated this on my other sites last week and I forgot to here! :U Sorry about that!  
> Anyway  
>  **CHAPTER WARNINGS: Body horror (and stuff relating to MECH and their body snatching), minor character death**

Ratchet angrily brought his servos down on the console in front of him with a loud _CLANG_.

“BLAST IT!” he shouted, “How can it be gone already?!!” After letting out a frustrated groan, the medic let his arms fall back to his sides and he turned away from the computer screen. Behind him, Arcee and Optimus stood next to Bumblebee who was once again laying down and hooked up to an energon feed. Ratchet continued, “I’m afraid our small window of opportunity is closed. MECH has already entered an area shielded from our scanners. I’m unable to pick up a signal from Bulkhead or Miko… or _Knockout_.”

Bumblebee let out an angry whirr at the name. Optimus narrowed his optics and looked up at the console’s screen. The Prime looked as though he wanted to say something, but he remained silent.

After a moment Arcee asked, “Have we been able to contact Agent Fowler yet?” She looked over to Raf who was standing on the platform near Ratchet.

“Afraid not.” Raf looked up from his phone as he spoke. “I’ve been calling him non-stop, but he’s not picking up.”

“I’m hardly surprised. I tried to contact him yesterday and he only got back to me this morning!” Ratchet said, glancing down at Raf. Then he turned his gaze to Optimus looking serious. “We don’t have time to waste trying to get the humans to help us! By the time they can do anything it may already be too late for Bulkhead and Miko.”

“Well then what can we do?” Arcee asked. Her expression was stern but the desperation was pretty apparent in her voice.

Ratchet lowered his helm “Not much, but at this point… Our _best_ option might simply be to bridge to the coordinates Knockout used and try to track them down.”

“I don’t know about that,” Arcee replied, “Remember the last time we tried to follow MECH like that? We all almost got scrapped by an exploding optic!”

Bumblebee sat up slightly and looked up at her, “ _BZZZZwhirrrrr?_ ”

“No, I don’t mean that _specifically_ would happen again. I just meant that MECH is dangerous… and they’re smart _._ ” Arcee tapped her digit on her helm. “They’ll _expect_ us to follow, is what I’m saying.”

“We cannot do nothing while we wait to formulate a more effective plan.” Optimus stepped forward as he finally addressed his team. “Arcee and I will go to the last known coordinates and try to follow whatever trail MECH has left in their wake. Ratchet, you and Raf continue working on a new strategy, and do not stop trying to reach Agent Fowler.”

Bumblebee tilted his helm and whirred expectantly.

“ _Your_ job is to recover, Bumblebee.” Optimus said. “You may join us when Ratchet clears you for field work again.”

Bee emitted a growl-like buzz and angrily shrugged his shoulder plating. “ _BeepbooooopZZZZZZzzzwhirrRRR!!_ ”

At the scout’s words, Optimus’ optics gave off a dangerous looking flare for just a moment. He looked back down to Bee. “Rest assured that whether or not you accompany us, Bumblebee, Knockout _will_ face consequences for his actions today.” Though his voice remained even, Prime gave off a powerful intensity as he spoke. Next to him Arcee briefly glanced away uneasily. Bumblebee responded only with a low whirr and shrank down a little- not scared, just somewhat in awe of his Prime.

Without another word, Optimus turned and headed towards the groundbridge as Ratchet pulled the activation lever. Arcee gave a short nod to Bee and Ratchet then ran after Optimus and they both disappeared through the portal.

When Knockout’s systems came back online, he thought for a moment someone had made use of a very powerful gear puller on his neck. He tried raising his arm to rub at his aching helm, but found that both his arms were being held down. His processor was still a bit foggy so for a minute he didn’t realize what that meant, he just thought it was a little strange. But as his sensors slowly rebooted, he remembered what had happened. As the memory came rushing back, his optics flashed on.

“Breakdown?!”

Rather than finding his partner standing over him looking concerned (like he had really, sincerely hoped he would), he instead saw he was strapped down in a rather bleak looking warehouse. The room he was in was incredibly long and nearly as wide, with platforms and catwalks lining the walls and ceiling. Various heavy machinery and technical instruments were scattered throughout the room. There was also a large metal door on the far wall to his right, and a smaller corridor off to the left.

The slab he was strapped to was tilted upward so he was almost in a standing position, although his pedes were nowhere close to the ground. Though he couldn’t move his frame, he was still able to look around somewhat. His vision darted around, searching desperately, but there was no sign of his partner. He did, however, see that not too far away, over on the left side of the room, there were a good number of humans scrambling about, apparently working very diligently on something that was just outside his line of vision.

“Breakdown? …Oh yes. Silas _did_ say that was the transformer’s name.”

Knockout tore his gaze away from the working humans and his optics darted upward. Standing on a catwalk on the left above him, a thin, pale woman wearing a standard MECH jumpsuit with a white lab coat thrown over it was looking down at him through a pair of standard MECH goggles. Her black hair was pulled back in a tight bun and she looked incredibly serious.

Knockout glared up at the human. “Where is he?”

The woman raised an eyebrow. “Interesting. Usually the first question asked is ‘where am _I?_ ' or 'what's going on?' This must be quite important to you. What was your relationship with-?”

“Shut up.” Knockout’s voice was sharp and demanding. “I’m not interested in banter right now. Tell me where Breakdown is!”

The woman lifted a clipboard from where she’d held it at her side and looked down at it. “You shouldn’t concern yourself with that,” she said flatly. “So your name is Knockout, correct? And is it true you are a Cybertronian medic?”

Knockout tried to struggle against his restraints, but it only achieved a loud clanging that echoed across the room while the metal straps remained firmly in place. “SHUT UP!! Where is Breakdown?!”

“You’ll find this will proceed much smoother if you coopera-”

“I’M NOT ABOUT TO FRAGGIN’ COOPERATE WITH YOU! What have you done with Breakdown?!”

The woman paused for a moment, a little startled by Knockout’s loud interruption. Then she looked down and scribbled a few notes down on her clipboard. “Hmm. Quite the temper… We can certainly accommodate for that, though,” she mumbled. Then she lowered it and looked up to meet Knockout’s gaze again. “Cooperation is your best option at the moment,” she continued, her voice remaining cool and even. “We have already captured you, and you will find that escape is quite impossible. Now,” she held up the clipboard with her pen ready, “will you confirm that your name is Knockout and that you are, in fact, a Cybertronian medic?”

Knockout didn’t respond, he only stared at her with wide optics. After a moment the woman looked about to say more, but another voice called out from where the other humans were gathered. “Oi, doc! Quit meddlin’ with the machines. We need ya down here!”

“Please excuse me,” she said with a slight nod to Knockout, then she turned and headed down a short set of stairs and towards her fellow MECH agents, her shoes clinking on the catwalk as she hurried along. Knockout watched her go with a fierce glare.

Once she had gotten far enough away, he turned his helm back and looked around. So escape was impossible, huh? Well, he wasn’t about to just take her word for it. He looked down at the slab he was stuck on and tried again to free his wrists. No such luck. He couldn’t transform out his buzzsaw either, not with the metal strap over his wrist the way it was. He started looking around to see if there was anything nearby that might be useful, and that’s when he realized that an offline Bulkhead was just on his right and similarly strapped down.

If he could wake him up it might be helpful to have an extra processor trying to find a way out of this. Even if that processor belonged to the very dumbest of the Autobots… which was saying something, considering… y’know. _Autobots._

He gave a short glance back over to the other humans to be sure they were still preoccupied, then “Hey, Bulkhead?” Knockout said as loudly as he dared. “Bulkhead! Get up!”

The green Autobot stirred slightly in response to his name. Knockout continued to call him, shooting a glance back towards the humans every once in awhile to be sure they didn’t look over, and finally Bulkhead opened his optics and a bright blue glow returned to them.

He blinked twice and glanced around. “Wha…? Where am I? …What’s goin’ on?” he grumbled.

“MECH captured us, remember?” Knockout spoke quietly, “We don’t have much time. We have to figure a way out of here while they’re busy or-”

“Wait! Where’s Miko?” Bulkhead interrupted him, whipping his helm around to take in his surroundings. Then he started shouting, “MIKO!!?”

“No! No shut _up!_ ” Knockout hissed. He turned back and saw that a number of the MECH agents had looked up and two of them were on their way over. Scrap! That was probably the one opportunity they might have had to come up with a plan together… He should’ve know that idiot Wrecker would blow it.

The two agents approached Bulkhead and started talking to him, something about keeping calm. Bulkhead kept yelling about Miko, and wasn’t at all interested in anything else they had to say. Knockout wasn’t listening to any of that, though. He looked back around towards the other MECH agents. They appeared to have finished what they were working on and pulled away, along with the machinery they were using. As they did, Knockout was able to see what they were fussing over was a _leg._ A Cybertronian leg.

“Very good, that should suffice.” The voice of the woman from earlier rang out. After she spoke, there was a whirring sound and the leg started to shift. As it continued to move, Knockout realized it was attached to an Eradicon. Hewas firmly strapped down to a third slab which was now being tilted into an almost-standing position similar to the one Knockout and Bulkhead were in. His mask was still on so his expression was unreadable, but from the way he trembled slightly and his servos clutched at the slab beneath him it was pretty clear the poor mech was absolutely terrified.

The woman stepped up to the catwalk’s railing and spoke to the ‘Con, “Now then, you’re a Decepticon soldier, yes? And what is your name?” she asked, flipping over some papers on her clipboard and preparing to write.

The Eradicon stayed silent as he stared up at her. He glanced down quickly towards Knockout and Bulkhead, but they couldn’t offer any clue as to what was going on. In fact, their presence probably just made everything that much more confusing. “I… I don’t… what’s happening?” he mumbled, “And… Why did you fix my leg?”

“Well we can’t use you if you can’t properly move about,” the woman replied, “Now please answer my questions and I will be glad to answer yours once I’m through.”

“…I’m GT-06.” the Eradicon said hesitantly.

The designation was scribbled down on the clipboard. “Thank you, GT-06. Now, do you have any physical or mental maladies? It is very important that you are honest with me.”

“No I don’t.” GT-06 glanced around again. “What exactly is going on here? Why do you need to know that?”

The woman lowered the clipboard and continued, “To proceed with our operation we just need to ensure the safety of our agent. If you have any disqualifying conditions we want to know about them _before_ we attempt a conversion ”

GT-06’s visor flashed brighter as his optics widened beneath his mask. “Wait, c-conversion…?” he stammered. “To _what_?”

“Surely you noticed the transformers that captured you were not your fellow Decepticons. They were converted into shells- new bodies for our agents,” the woman said with a small nod.

“ _WHAT?!!_ ” Both Knockout and GT-06 shouted together.

GT-06’s shout was washed in horror as he realized what that meant for him and what they planned to do with him.

Knockout’s outburst was not steeped in fear but in rage. So this meant that Breakdown hadn’t been alive at all- these humans had just stolen his partner and decided to stick one of their agents into him! So not only did Knockout get his hopes up and throw away the protection he had with the Autobots for nothing, but MECH had been using the frame of his offlined partner as a slagging _puppet!!_ His claws dug into the slab beneath him with a sharp shriek from the metal. He opened his mouth to shout- to tell these MECH lackeys how vile and despicable they were… but Knockout couldn’t even find words that would do justice to the fury and devastation that was surging through him. The thought of one of these disgusting humans piloting Breakdown… it was just unbearable.

On the other side of him Bulkhead shifted slightly as though trying to shrug, “Tried to warn ya…” Knockout looked back at Bulkhead as he spoke. “Back on the road, I mean… sorry.”

Knockout might have had a harsh reply for him, but not a moment after the Wrecker spoke, they suddenly heard the thrumming of an engine. One of the MECH agents scurried down the stairs and over to the large metal door on the right and pressed a few buttons allowing it to slide open, though all that could be seen on the other side was the curve of a long, narrow hallway. Just as the door opened fully, a blue armored car came barreling around the turn closely followed by a pair of black and purple muscle cars.

As they rolled into the room, Silas and one of the Vehicon agents transformed to their robot modes. The third drove up to one of the nearby staircases and parked as other agents approached it. That didn’t really seem important to Knockout, though. In fact, he had his optics locked on Silas the moment he’d come into view and was glaring viciously at him.

Silas made a beeline towards the Eradicon. When he passed by, he only gave Knockout a short glance. How had he not realized the second he saw this abomination approaching on that road? Everything about him was _wrong._ The look in his optics, the way he walked and drove, even the sound his engine made… No, this wasn’t Breakdown at all.

Knockout didn’t struggle to get free; he already knew that was futile. Rather, he stayed perfectly still as Silas went by, only following him with his optics. He wasn’t sure how yet, but he was going to get out of these restraints, and then he was going to _destroy_ this impostor!

Silas approached the Eradicon and looked at the woman standing nearby on the catwalk. “Doctor Vee-” he addressed her, “how have things been progressing down here? I couldn’t help but notice that _none_ of our captured transformers have been converted yet.”

Vee tilted her head down slightly, her lips narrowing somewhat angrily as he spoke. “This is a delicate operation, sir. I believe it is important that we have the proper data on their individual psychological conditions before we rush into-”

“These are _machines,_ doctor.” Silas interrupted her. “Regardless of how many tests you want to run on their supposed sentience, that fact still remains. There’s only so much you can evaluate that can’t be deciphered in coding.”

“Sir, you really are underestimating these transformers as a species.” Vee said. She straightened her posture and tilted up her chin, as though trying to look bigger. “Their personalities are not entirely dictated by the internal coding. In the evaluations I’ve already completed I found they’re much more evolved than you seem to think.”

“I’m not interested in debating you, doctor, and as it turns out, we are a bit stressed for time at the moment. It would be best if we could get on with it, already.”

“But there is _so_ much more I could learn about them! If I could just finish-”

“That’s an order!”

Vee let out an irritated huff and turned on her heel to stride back down the catwalk. While that whole exchange was going on, Knockout continued to keep his optics trained intently on Silas. Behind him, however, another commotion had stirred up. The two MECH agents were having some sort of trouble in the backseat of the Vehicon that had pulled up to the stairs. After a long struggle, they managed to pull a kicking and screaming Miko from the vehicle and started carrying her over to the stairs. The Vehicon transformed once they were clear and reached down to pluck her from their grasp. While all that was happening, Bulkhead was furiously tugging at the metal straps holding him down and screaming at the agents to leave the girl alone.

“DON’T YOU _DARE_ HURT HER!” he shouted as the Vehicon picked Miko up by her wrists, which were bound together with a simple ziptie.

He only gave a sidelong glance towards Bulkhead before he stepped around him, placing Miko down on the platform behind Knockout. He didn’t release her until the other agents there had control of her again. One of them took another ziptie and attached her already bound wrists to the railing, then quickly backed away as she kicked at him. After she was secure, the agents hurried over towards Vee and the Eradicon leaving just one behind to guard her.

When they’d gone, Miko turned to Bulkhead. “Bulk! Are you okay? What’d they do to you?”

“I’m fine!” he said, looking concerned. “What about you? They didn’t hurt you, did they?”

Miko shot an angry glare at the nearby agent. “Hurt me? Yeah right- I’d like to see one of ‘em _try._ ”

“Shut up, you two!” the agent shouted. He appeared to be trying to listen to what was going on over by the other MECH agents.

They had wheeled over what looked like a bulky, half spherical computer chip with a number of clamps and tendrils on the flat back end. There was also a small black plaque on the side reading CAID. It was about half the height of the average agent, but it looked rather heavy.

Dr. Vee stepped onto the platform behind GT-06 and placed her hands on a control panel connecting down to the slab he was on. She leaned over to address him, “Now GT-06, would you please open your chest cavity for us?” she said flatly. “We require access to your ‘spark chamber.’”

“WHAT?!!” the Eradicon shouted, his voice suddenly high pitched. The idea of letting these humans fiddle around with his spark was just horrifying! “N-NO! What are you _crazy!_ ”

“You would do well cooperate with us. If you refuse to comply I will have to use a manual override, and I must warn you, it is not pleasant.”

“No fraggin’ way!” he shouted, tugging at his restraints again. “I’m not gonna let you at my spark! You humans are fraggin-” He was suddenly cut off as Vee brought her hand down on the panel. A powerful electric current could be seen surging through the metal beneath the Eradicon as he let out a strangled scream! This continued for nearly ten seconds until finally the plating over his chassis shifted and transformed back revealing his inner mechanisms. Knockout and Bulkhead, who had been staring at the spectacle, instinctively averted their gaze. Silas and the humans showed no such consideration and continued watching the Eradicon intently, even as the bright blue glow of his spark chamber became visible. Both of them slowly looked back a moment later, though, when they figured etiquette had probably gone out the window a long time ago anyway.

The electric pulse finally stopped and GT-06 slumped back against the slab, his helm rolling forward and the glow from his visor slightly dimmer than before.

“I did warn you.” Vee said quietly. Then she looked up at Silas. “Agent Caid is already downloaded onto the insert, sir.”

“Very good. I’ll take it from here.” Silas interrupted her and reached over and picked up the half-sphere. “Obviously yours isn’t ready yet, but is it too much to presume the next agent is also prepared?”

“I’m afraid not,” Vee replied.

“Then see that gets underway immediately.”

“Yes sir.” Vee turned from the console and hurried off down the catwalk and towards a platform holding some powerful looking machinery.

Silas looked back down to GT-06. He was trembling as his gaze darted anxiously from his open chassis to the object in Silas’ servo. Silas took a step closer and lifted the object, holding it out towards the Eradicon. As he did, the clamps on the back opened with a menacing _KRSHHT_ sound.

GT-06 stiffened up, struggling against his bonds. “Hey… hey wait! Wait, y-you can’t do this!” The plating around his chassis twitched slightly as though he were trying to transform it back in to place but couldn’t manage it. Silas didn’t react or even acknowledge the ‘Con’s protest.

“No! Get away!! Don’t- Don’t do this, Breakdown! _Please!!_ ”

Silas shoved his servo forward, connecting the device to GT-06’s spark chamber. The clamps immediately pressed down locking it into place as the Eradicon screamed helplessly. The tendrils on the back side seemed to activate and proceeded to burrow _into_ the spark chamber and take root. GT-06’s screams suddenly became charged with static.

“The more you fight it the longer this will take,” Silas took a step away, glaring down at the ‘Con. “and the longer the pain will last.”

“M… m-make it stop!” GT-06’s voice was so garbled from the static it was hard to make out the words.

“ _You_ can make it stop.” Silas said, as though he were trying to sound encouraging. “Stop resisting, and then everything else will stop too.”

GT-06 let out one last, desperate scream that slowly transitioned to mere static. Then he went silent, falling limp against the metal. The glow in his spark chamber and optics faded. It stayed quiet for nearly a minute as the focus in the room remained on the now offlined GT-06.

Finally, GT-06’s frame gave a violent shudder and he lifted his helm. The glow returned to his optics but, strangely, not his spark chamber. He looked down at himself, shifting around as well as he could beneath the metal straps.

“Whoa!” He spoke, now in an entirely different voice. “This feels really weird.”

“Welcome back, Agent Caid.” Silas said, clasping his servos behind him. “How are you functioning? Are all your systems in order?”

Another agent on the catwalk pressed a command on the control panel and the restraints holding down the newly converted Agent Caid released, allowing him to slide down to the ground. As his pedes touched the ground he staggered forward a bit, but kept his footing. Once he’d gathered himself he stood at attention, saluting Silas as he twitched his wings slightly. “Yes sir! Thank you, sir!”

“Very good.” Silas stepped around him to get a good look at his new soldier. “This new frame of yours is a flier. Piloting _yourself_ rather than a separate aircraft may take some getting used to.” He gave a quick nod over to the other two Vehicons. “Of course, the other agents will assist you in getting acquainted with your new body. I suggest you get started immediately.”

“Yes sir!” The eagerness in the agent’s voice was very apparent. He turned quickly to go, perhaps a bit too quickly, as he nearly fell over. The other two Vehicons lunged forward and caught him, however. They gave him a moment to regain his bearings and then helped him walk towards the metal door. Before they’d reached it, he pushed himself off them and hurried ahead.

Knockout, Bulkhead, and Miko watched him pass by in stunned silence; the horror of the scene they had just witnessed still sinking in. Once Agent Caid and the others had gone by, Knockout turned his optics back to Silas.

Silas immediately met his gaze with a smugly satisfied look on his stolen face. For the first time since he’d woken up, Knockout finally seemed to grasp how desperate this situation was, and a wave of panic swept over him. MECH was _actually_ using Cybertronian bodies as puppets for their soldiers! And worse yet, that look Silas was giving him meant that he was next.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I intend for the next chapter to be the last one. Plus an epilogue of course.  
>  **CHAPTER WARNINGS: Body horror (and stuff relating to MECH and their body snatching)**

There had been a rockslide. It appeared to have taken out few of MECH's vehicles. The jeeps had been swept into the trees and were sitting, half buried in the piles of rocks and dust that also covered the road. Other than those metal frames they could see protruding from the dirt, there didn't seem to be any sign of MECH. And no sign of Bulkhead or Miko either.

Arcee furrowed her brow angrily and looked away from the rock pile. She'd allowed herself at least a little optimism by hoping that they'd find some sort of lead. Well, there were skid and track marks in the dirt, bullet holes, a scorched crater where a missile had apparently been launched... but there wasn't even any indication that Bulkhead and Miko were still alive. This did not bode well.

The femme turned back to face Optimus. The Prime was looking down at a coordinate scanner in his servo. "Is that thing telling you anything useful?"

"I have pulled up the coordinates of the mine where we located Bumblebee. When compared to our current location-" he lowered the scanner and looked down the road, "It's most likely that MECH was headed in that direction."

"That is, if they even kept to the road," Arcee added, following his gaze. She then quickly transformed and started down the dirt path. "We'd better hurry."

Optimus stashed the scanner in a subspace compartment and followed suit. As they drove, keeping their optics peeled for any potential clues, Arcee felt a queasy churning in her fuel tanks. She tried not to think too much on it, but still... she felt absolutely sick that Bulkhead and Miko were in danger because of Knockout. And she'd stuck up for him too. On multiple occasions. Had she been wrong in doing that?

It sure hadn't felt that way at the time. After all, Knockout had saved Jack when he didn't have to. And then he'd helped Bulkhead come to her and Ratchet's rescue... This betrayal didn't seem to make sense with his earlier actions.

Although if what Bumblebee and Ratchet said was true, the reason he had turned on them was because Breakdown had returned and was working with MECH. That certainly would explain it, but... well, she had a bit of experience in the area of having partners miraculously come back from the dead. She figured Bee or Ratchet lacked a certain perspective. They had made it sound as though Knockout had gone out, skipping and laughing maniacally, to _join_ Breakdown and MECH on some sort of killing spree... but she knew better. She knew that feeling- that hope that you might actually see someone you thought you'd lost- that was enough to make a stronger 'Bot than Knockout do some questionable things.

Except, she also knew that partners don't just jump back online willy-nilly. Whatever had happened, dark energon or some sort of shady experimentation by MECH, she was almost certain that it had gotten Knockout in just as much trouble as Bulk and Miko... but Bulk and Miko were _still_ in trouble! And it was because of him! So just because she understood why he did it didn't mean she was about to forgive him for being so selfish.

Her forgiveness wasn't the issue, though. It was the Prime's. And he didn't even seem to be in an understanding mood. If they found them- _when_ they found them, she mentally corrected herself, Optimus wasn't going to be interested in hearing excuses about lost partners or experiments by MECH. And she wasn't going to stick up for him either, she decided. No, this time Knockout was on his own.

* * *

Once what was previously GT-06 had left the room with the other two Vehicon shells and the large metal door slid back into place, Silas turned and headed to the back of the room. On a platform there, Vee and two other engineers were fussing around a complex looking machine, part of which was hooked up to a semi-circular chip identical to the one that had just smothered the spark of GT-06.

Knockout glared after Silas, but once he began speaking to Vee, he looked away. Okay so there was no Breakdown here. Not really. It still felt like he was still trying to process that information, but dwelling on it right now was not a good idea. After all, he still hadn't come up with any sort of feasible escape plan. There was also the issue of a Vehicon being murdered and turned into one of MECH's agents right in front of his optics. That whole spectacle had been a bit... unnerving. He didn't really want to think about what that meant for him.

But still, the clock was ticking, and he needed to think of something! So that whole thing with GT-06 had... well, uh, it had _happened._ So what had Knockout learned from it? He'd learned that MECH was going to rip him open and turn him into- No! No, not that... what had he _actually_ learned?

Well, he learned that they used some sort of device attached to the spark chamber to control Cybertronian bodies... they had at least two other Vehicons converted already... these slabs they were strapped to could conduct electricity and force Cybertronians to partially transform... and the controls for the slabs were-

Knockout twisted his helm around, trying to get a look at the platform behind him. That was it! Somehow he had to get at that panel to free himself... Trouble was, he couldn't even manage to get a good look at the platform, let alone reach it... Then his optics drifted slightly and landed on the pink haired little girl still ziptied to the banister nearby. Miko was glaring over at Silas and the MECH engineers with her fists clenched. Those binds on her wrists looked weak enough to break... although humans were pretty weak, so Knockout wouldn't be surprised if Miko couldn't manage to free herself. Even so, he was having a hard time coming up with any better way to get at the controls.

"Miko!" Knockout called out to her, trying to keep his voice low.

Miko immediately shifted her glare over to him. "What do you want?"

"Can you get out of those bonds?"

"If I _could_ d'ya think I'd still be in 'em?!" Miko replied rather loudly, making a show of tugging at the ties.

"Quiet you!" The MECH agent who was guarding her (and also standing quite a ways off and not actually paying her any attention) shot an irritated glare at the girl. Then he quickly looked towards the back of the room again, trying to see what was going on over there. Although his posture actually made him look a bit nervous.

Knockout glanced at him, but seeing the human had lost interest he continued, "The controls to this slab are on that platform there- You have to get over to them and release me. It's our only way out of here!"

"Even if I could get myself free," Miko said, keeping her voice quieter this time, "why would I release _you?_ Bulkhead's right over there.I'd go help _him_."

Knockout glanced over at Bulkhead. He was still struggling in vain against his bonds and causing a bit of a racket doing so. Yeah that would be great; let the idiot Wrecker be their only chance for escape. If Bulkhead got out instead of them escaping, he'd probably just get pounded by Breakd- _Silas._ by Silas. But he'd already decided notto think about that right now...

Knockout clenched his jaw tightly for a moment before he spoke up again. " _Listen you little-_ " he paused and collected himself. No, yelling was a bad idea. After all, he wasn't angry at _her_... Okay so maybe he was a bit, but being angry wasn't to help. "Listen _Miko_ ," he continued, his voice much calmer than a moment before. "I hate to say it, but you're our best option right now. You _have to_ get out of those bonds, and when you do, you'd be doing all of us a favor by releasing mefirst. For whatever reason they put you closer to _me,_ and from where you are, you probably wouldn't be able to make it over to Bulkhead's controls before they caught you."

Miko said nothing for a long moment, then looked towards Bulkhead. He was still trying to free himself, but he looked over and met her gaze. He definitely looked worried... Finally, Miko huddled closer to the railing and started pulling her arms against the zip ties holding her. When she spoke again the usual bite in her voice seemed a little forced.

"What's... to stop you... from- _ow_..." She winced from the strain on her wrists, but continued. "From just... ditching me and Bulk... once you're free?"

"I won't." Knockout said simply.

"Why... Why should I trust you?"

"Because you don't have a choice."

"Promise me!" Miko stopped pulling for a moment and stared intently at Knockout. "You have to _promise me_ you'll help Bulkhead once I let you go."

Knockout just quietly returned her stare for a moment before replying, "Fine... I promise _._ "

Apparently satisfied, Miko went back to fussing with the zipties on her wrists. For another minute or so, she continued to struggle in silence with only a quiet 'ow' or sharp intakes of air every once in awhile. Though for all the pain she was causing herself, it still didn't seem like she was going to be able to do it. Knockout let out a quiet sigh and started looking around again. "Guess I'd better come up with a plan B..." he mumbled. "Do either of you have-" He stopped short at the sound of heavy, metallic footfalls drawing close. His helm snapped back around to watch as Silas approached them.

"Agent Dymas," Silas immediately addressed the MECH agent, "the engineers are ready for you. I'll take over here."

"Yes sir..." Dymas looked warily at the platform where Vee and the others were waiting for him. He took a long, deep breath and started towards them. Silas didn't watch him leave. Rather, once he'd issued his orders, his gaze fell immediately on Knockout. The walking abomination, as Knockout had decided he was, didn't say anything. He merely stood there, keepings his optics locked on the medic. Knockout remained silent as well and merely returned the glare.

That look he had- while Knockout couldn't keep the snarl off his face, Silas appeared calmly neutral but somehow still maintained an air of disdain and superiority... Ugh. What an awful expression. And he _hated_ that it was on _that_ face. As those mismatched yellow optics bored into him, all those things Knockout was trying not to think about started to creep into his processor again. He was going to end up like GT-06 and this... this hideous _thing_ that was Breakdown but wasn't Breakdown at all- Oh slag _Breakdown..._

Right as Knockout's thoughts began to turn towards that hot mess of a subject, he heard: "Hey! Hey, you big ugly pile'a scrap!"

Finally, Silas shifted his gaze away. Knockout hadn't ever thought he'd be relieved to hear Miko's voice. It felt like a physical weight had been lifted off him. He tore his optics from Silas and his thoughts with them... better to think about something else. Like escape. That was what was important now. Getting emotional would only distract from that. Behind him, Miko continued.

"I know you're kinda fragged in the head and everything," she shouted, still tugging slightly at her bonds, "but if you've got any sense left, you'll let us go before there's _trouble._ "

"Trouble, you say?" Silas said, clearly humoring the girl. "And why do you suppose that?"

Bulkhead was glancing nervously from Miko to Silas. "Miko..." he grumbled a warning, but she ignored it.

"Well the way I see it, there's two scenarios here. Number one," Miko lifted a finger to count off, "the Autobots show up to mess you and your MECH lackies up bad... Number two, we bust outta these puny cuffs and we wreckyou. _Personally_." She lowered her fingers, leaning forward against the railing slightly as though trying to be intimidating. "I hope for your sake it's the first one."

A subdued smirk managed to cross Silas' face. "Oh I see. Because you're _Wreckers_." he glanced over at Bulkhead. "How cute."

"Wait a sec," Bulkhead spoke up, "how do you even know about the Wreckers?"

"Ah, Vee never got the chance to explain, did she? That's for the best I think; she tends to elaborate with unnecessary details. Allow me to enlighten you in simple terms, Autobot." Silas tapped the side of his helm. "All the information stored in this frame's processor is accessible to me. If it was in his head, it's now in mine."

Bulkhead's optics widened in horror, "You... you can see into Breakdown's _mind_?! That's... that's..."

"Messed up." Miko finished quietly. She didn't look nearly as disgusted as Bulkhead, but even she seemed very uncomfortable with the implications. "You can't go lookin' at other people's memories- that's messed up!"

"There's nothing messed up about it." Silas glanced down at Miko. "You see little girl, these are _machines._ Not people. The 'memories' you refer to are nothing more than data files." He turned back to Bulkhead. "A long succession of those files were about you and your Wrecker friends. Powerful soldiers, those ones; just the kind of frames we're looking for. Too bad you're the only one of them on our planet... Ah and of course," he turned around to look at Knockout, "the files I have on _you,_ doctor-" He stopped as their optics met.

The glare Knockout was giving Silas gave him pause. Knockout's optics had an intense glow to them that hadn't been there before. The snarl was gone, instead his jaw was clenched firmly, his mouth shut tight pressed thin. He was even trembling slightly... This wasn't the contempt the medic had shown previously. No, this was something new. This was pure, cold fury.

Knockout had stopped holding back. There was no more diverting his attention from the matter. After this new revelation, it would be impossible to... As if using his frame like a puppet wasn't bad enough, but now this disgusting wretch had invaded Breakdown's _mind_! Everything his partner did, everything he was- Primus, everything they had shared together! It was all at the fingertips of this human. Those memories he was using were _private_! They belonged to his partner. They belonged to HIM. And they weren't to be shared with some foul little organic! He wasn't just going to destroy Silas- the second he got out he was going to tear him apart piece by piece, and then make him watch while-

" _Knockout_...?" The urgent whisper suddenly pulled Knockout out of his fantasy where he was vivisecting Silas. His optics turned towards Miko who was staring at him intently. "Don't forget what you promised me," she continued quietly.

Huh. It must have been pretty obvious what he was thinking if even Miko had picked up on it. He let in a deep intake and tried to collect himself... anger wasn't going to help right now. He'd already decided that. He looked back to Silas and immediately felt the rage bubble back up again, but he managed to stay focused. "So?" he practically hissed the word. "What _about_ the files you have on me?"

Silas eyed Knockout warily for another moment, then apparently decided whatever concerns he had were unfounded and that smug, confident look appeared again. "There are a lot of them," he finally replied. "Their specifics aren't really important. The important thing to be taken from _this_ frame's knowledge was that you are the Decepticons' medic."

"Ah. I see where you're going with this." Knockout growled, lowering his helm a bit. "You're not interested in turning me into one of your soldiers _-_ you're after what's in my processor."

"You catch on quick."

"Well what about me?" Miko suddenly spoke up. "What're you freaks keepin' me around for? I'm not a transforming robot."

"No, you're not." Silas sneered down at the girl. "Not yet, anyway."

There was a second of hesitation after that comment, then finally Miko spoke up again, but only to ask: "...Wait, what?"

"Take a look over at what our engineers are doing." Silas gestured towards Vee and the others. Agent Dymas had been strapped into a seat, numerous wires and devices were being attached to his head and neck. Vee seemed to be taking the lead, checking over all the connections and then finally lowering a circular helmet as a finishing touch. Silas continued, "You see, to control these frames we use that machinery to download our agents' minds into a portable chip. The chips themselves are usually easy to install. However, we encountered some trouble using them on some transformers." Silas gave a quick glance down at Knockout. "It seems some frame types lack a certain amount of strength necessary withstand the conversion process. One of our agents' chips was corrupted trying to convert the smaller Vehicon miners... that's where _you_ come in." Silas looked to Miko again. "Since Knockout's frame is smaller than our typical candidates, we've decided to evaluate his durability using you as a test subject."

The look of sheer horror that crossed the faces of his captives made Silas crack an amused smile, one that stayed even as Miko and Knockout both started screaming in protest.

"You have GOTto be kidding me! Of all the humans you could use to kill me you choose HER?!"

"NO! No I don't wanna be Knockout! That's super weird!"

"If you think I'm going to let the consciousness of that little brat control me for even a _nanoklik_ then-"

"Let me go! You can't do this! I-" As Miko continued to shout, she started pulling on her restraints again in fast jerking motions.

"Ah ah- I wouldn't be doing that, little girl." Silas took a short step towards her, reaching around to his back and unclipping something. A moment later he was unfolding Knockout's staff and pointing it towards her menacingly. At the sight of the staff both of them fell silent. Silas continued, "I would hate to have to take more drastic measures to restrain you. Keep in mind: we only require that your brain be intact for our process to work."

Miko stopped and shrank down a bit, staring at the sharp prongs of the staff. Knockout was staring at it as well. He had been wondering where that went. If he could get his servos on it he was sure he could take out Silas and he could get out of there... hrmm. Now if only he wasn't still strapped down...

Meanwhile Miko had turned away from Silas and was now staring at the very nervous looking MECH agent whose head was hooked up to the machine. "So... so how are you gonna-?" before she could finish asking her question, Vee threw a switch on the device. The strapped in agent shuddered violently and gave a painful cry that was nearly drowned out by the loud, electric buzzing coming off the machine itself. It lasted about twenty seconds, and just as the buzzing began to fade away, Agent Dymas slumped over.

Two of the other MECH agents went over and unstrapped him, pulling the wires off his head and neck. Meanwhile Vee was flitting about the control panel of the machine, adjusting dials and typing commands. Shortly after she stepped back and nodded to another set of agents who immediately began unhooking the massive chip attached to the machine and gently lowering it down onto a short cart. After Vee quietly checked it over, removing her goggles to get a better look, and marking off a list on her clipboard, she waved them on and they wheeled it down the catwalk towards their Cybertronian captives.

Even as they passed by her with the chip, Miko was still staring at the body of Agent Dymas. The two who had taken him out of the seat had just laid him down on the ground and went about helping the others, but the agent hadn't moved. He... didn't seem to be breathing either.

"What happened to him?" she demanded, "Is he gonna be okay? I-I mean... say the whole becoming a robot thing doesn't work out for him? You guys can put him back in his body, right?"

"Actually-" Miko looked around and saw Vee had come down the catwalk as well and was standing behind her. She continued, "the process of transfering a human consciousness into the unique digital code which allows us to maintain control over the transformers' bodies causes irreparable damage to the organic neurons of the brain, which-"

"No." Silas interrupted her. "He's dead. To put it more preciesly."

"Yes. Well... I was getting to that." Vee turned away from Miko and continued after the other agents as they were setting up... behind Bulkhead.

Miko felt her heart skip a beat as it dawned on her. This was going to happen _right now!_ They were going to kill Bulkhead and she was still tied up!

"No! No no get away from Bulk! Don't you _DARE_ put that thing in him!" She screamed as she returned to tugging furiously against the zip ties holding her. No one seemed to be paying attention to her anymore, though. Silas had stepped over and was reaching for Agent Dymas' chip.

"Sir, I should at least run some diagnostic scans to ensure the insert will hold." Vee spoke just as Silas picked up the chip.

"That won't be necessary." Silas said, "I know for a fact this transformer is powerful enough to withstand the conversion."

"...If you say so, sir." Vee mumbled, then quietly took up her place behind the control panel to Bulkhead's slab. Her fingers were hovering over the buttons eagerly. "Now, _Bulkhead_ was it? Will you open of your own free will or-?"

" _Blow it out yer actuators, ya stinkin' MECH lackey!_ "

"I thought as much." Vee lowered her hand onto the controls and electricity began coursing through the slab. Bulkhead's frame was shuddering as the current ran through him, but his jaw was clenched and his optics shut tight as he tried to resist. Ultimately, he wasn't able to hold it back and the command was able to override his transformation sequence, opening up his chest cavity. As the current stopped, he slouched forward just barely, but his optics shot open and he glared up at Silas.

"You think you'll actually get me to give in to that stupid chip's control?" he growled, "well then you've got another thing comin'..."

"Don't worry, Wrecker, I have first-hand knowledge about how stubborn you are." Silas lifted his servo holding the chip. The clamps on the back side opened with that awful _KRSHHT_ sound. "But I'm willing to bet you have a breaking point."

Silas thrust his servo forward into Bulkhead's chest, the chip connecting with the spark chamber and digging its tendrils in to take root. Bulkhead let out an agonizing scream and began thrashing against his restraints. Silas continued to glare down at him with a triumphant smirk. "I suppose we'll find out soon enough if I'm right."


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here’s a nice long chapter to make up for the lengthy delay. Stay tuned, epilogue is forthcoming~  
>  **CHAPTER WARNINGS: Blood/Gore (of the human variety this time- specifically related to eyes. I know that’s a big squick for some people)**

This flying thing turned out to be a lot harder than he remembered... well, harder than this _frame_ remembered, anyway. However, following a panicked adjustment to his wings and a few rapid thrusts to his engine... No. No, it was still no good. Agent Caid dropped out of the sky once more and landed ungracefully in the branches of a tall tree.

He turned back into his robot mode to climb down, but he caught up some branches during the transformation sequence. Specifically, the ones holding him up. The loss of support sent him tumbling to the ground, landing heavily on his back and his new wings. He sat up with a pained groan and started picking the twigs out of his joints. This really wasn't as fun as he'd thought it would be.

“ _Agent Caid? ..._ Caid _, are you alright?_ ”

Caid pressed his digit down on the temporary communicator strapped to his wrist. “Yeah yeah, I'm fine,” he grumbled. “It's just... It's hard getting used to this robot body, that's all. I'll figure it out.”

“ _There_ is _a bit of a learning curve- we all went through it. Well, hurry back to base. There's some other maneuvers we think you should try. Might help you get the hang of it._ ”

“Yeah alright, but I'm walkin' this time.” Caid released the button and, after irritably picking out the last few twigs, he stomped off through the trees. He didn't take notice of the two Autobots hiding a ways behind him.

Arcee looked up to Optimus, “If that was what I think it was,” she began quietly, “then that could mean MECH has-”

Optimus held a servo up to cut her off. “I am aware,” he said simply. Then he stood up straighter and added, “He is returning to their base; we can't lose sight of him,” and started forward after Caid. Arcee just nodded and followed close behind, all the while trying not to think too hard about what MECH had done to that Vehicon... or if they had the same treatment planned for Bulkhead.

* * *

MECH's warehouse base reverberated with the sound of screams. The low, agonized cry of Bulkhead as he fought against the device invading his spark chamber was now accompanied by the shrill, horrified screech of Miko as she pulled and twisted violently against her bonds.

This whole time she'd known they planned to kill Bulkhead and yet she had just been standing around bickering with Knockout and Silas. Knockout had even said it before: _she_ was their only hope at escape. Why hadn't she tried sooner? Why hadn't she tried _harder_?! Bulkhead was going to die and now she might not have enough time to save him! She had to break free, she just hadto! He was dying _right now_ in front of her very eyes and she couldn't stop it! His spark could go out any second _and she couldn't save him!!_

Tears were streaming down the girl's face as she thrashed, throwing all her weight against the ties holding her. As she did, the restraints pulled violently at her skin, cutting into her wrists, and blood began streaming down her forearms. She didn't even care about that; she just continued struggling as she cried for Bulkhead.

Miko continued to scream and pull at her restraints until finally the noise caught the attention of Silas, whose gaze had previously been sternly fixed on Bulkhead. His optics narrowed disapprovingly as he watched the girl thrash about, and he looked away again with a short shake of his helm.

“Doctor-” Silas spoke up. Vee looked up from the readings on the control panel and Silas continued, “The conversion could take awhile; this one is particularly stubborn.” He gave a light kick to Bulkhead's shuddering pede. “Get started on converting the girl so we can hurry along with testing Knockout.”

“Very well, sir.” Vee nodded, turned away from the control panel and, gesturing for a nearby agent to accompany her, started towards Miko. The agent followed behind, pulling out a short switchblade and flipping it open to cut the ties holding the girl to the railing.

Just as they came up behind her, one final, powerful jerk finally snapped the ziptie and Miko went tumbling backwards right into the pair of them! There was a brief moment where all three of them struggled in a heap, still shocked from the sudden collision, but Miko recovered first and quickly scrambled to get back to her feet.

She started taking a few steps towards Bulkhead but then stopped. The other agents were all in that direction and some of them were rushing towards her. For a split second she just froze; there were at least six MECH agents between her and Bulkhead and her hands were still bound by the second zip tie. How was she going to get past them and free him?

“ _MIKO_! OVER HERE!”

Her head whipped around towards Knockout. That's right- she had to free _Knockout_! Miko pivoted back and sprinted towards the control panel to Knockout's slab.

“ _No!!_ ” Silas lunged for the girl, his giant metal fingers extended to grab her, but he was too late. Miko reached the control panel and smashed both her hands down on the little green button labeled 'release' and the metal straps holding Knockout slid back. Silas had been in mid step going after Miko, so he wasn't prepared to defend himself when Knockout pounced!

Knockout didn't waste any time with it either. The the second he was free he leapt up and slammed his whole body right into Silas. The MECH leader nearly fell as he stumbled backwards into Bulkhead's slab. As he tried to stand upright properly, Knockout, still pressed against Silas and putting most of his weight on him, grabbed ahold of Silas' front plating, pulling the great bulk of his chassis down, and then drove his claws straight into the connecting wires of his neck.

Silas cried out in pain and energon sprayed across the both of them. Before Knockout could do any more damage, Silas swung up the energon staff still in his hand. However, Knockout had already released him and jumped back, avoiding the attack. With Knockout's weight off him, he finally steadied himself and took up a fighting stance.

“A lucky break. But I'm afraid your luck stops here!” Silas growled, activating the staff in his hand. “It's useless fighting like this. You can't possibly escape.”

Knockout said nothing, but shifted his stance as well, raising his arms and stretching out his claws, ready to strike. His optics had a fierce, angry glow to them as he glared straight into Silas' face, but even though he looked eager to fight, he didn't move to attack. Then Silas noticed Knockout's gaze flicker down to the staff in his hand just for a split second.

No, now that he really thought about it, Knockout's goal probably wasn't just escape. That's why he was waiting. He was going to go for the staff so he could take Silas down and then pull him apart. Probably slowly. And agonizingly. Worst of all, Knockout might actually be able to do it. Silas could bring up scores of memory files this frame had of Knockout fighting with a staff, and his skill with the weapon was impressive to say the least. He was definitely more practiced than Silas was. If he tried to attack Knockout with the staff and the medic got his hands on it...

Silas knew what he had to do, and it was unfortunate because he was hoping to do as little damage to Knockout as possible. They would just have to repair him again, after all. But it was too much of a risk to use the staff, so it couldn't be helped. Quickly, Silas switched off the staff, took a firm grip near each end, and thrust it down over his knee, snapping it in half! A shower of sparks erupted from the destroyed weapon, and Silas tossed the two useless pieces to the side. Looking back up at Knockout, he couldn't help but smile smugly at the look of shock and confusion on his face. Looks like the mech hadn't been expecting that.

Silas took up his fighting stance again. “Your move, _Doc_!”

His taunt appeared to work; Knockout's optics flared violently at hearing the familiar nickname, and he launched himself at Silas!

“Knockout!” Miko called out to the medic, leaning heavily over the railing. Her eyes flew from Knockout, now clashing with Silas, over to Bulkhead and then back again. “Knockout, you have to help Bulkhead!!” she screamed, cupping her hands, trying to be as loud as she could to get his attention.

A ways behind her on the platform, Vee and the MECH agent had finally pulled themselves together. Vee pushed the agent hard and he stumbled towards the catwalk. “Quickly! Go arm yourself and help your fellow agents contain the subject!” she ordered, then she turned and fixed her glare on Miko. “ _I_ will handle the situation here.”

The agent muttered a half coherent response and ran down the catwalk towards where the rest of MECH's agents were readying their shock cannons. As he did, Vee glanced down and then bent over, retrieving the switchblade he had dropped earlier. Miko, who had heard the pounding footsteps on the metal as the agent ran off, turned to look just in time to see this.

“K-Knockout?!” she cried again, her voice wavering slightly. Vee began to approach her. Miko raised her still bound hands defensively and started to back away. “KNOCKOUT?!!”

“Stupid little girl! You haven't the faintest idea what you are interfering with, do you?” Vee lifted the knife in front of her as she continued to approach.

“Yes I do! I won't let you turn my best friend into a science experiment!” Miko shouted back.

“Stupid _and_ arrogant, I see.” Vee said flatly. “Tell me, how do you expect your friendship with the robots to play out?” She paused in moving towards Miko, lowering the knife slightly. “These titans who live for eons, do you imagine yourself more than a blip on their radar, child?”

Miko's eyes widened, “What- I...? No! Bulkhead is-”

“An alien.” Vee interrupted her. “A member of a powerful, advanced, alien species with durability far outreaching anything you or me or any other carbon-based life on this planet could ever hope for!” Vee's face seemed to lighten enthusiastically as she continued. “The technological advancements available to their species merely because of their physiology as mechanical lifeforms are astonishing in their potential alone! Humans on their own could not possibly hope to match that level of-”

“Shutup!!” Miko shouted, cutting her off. “Bulk's not just some alien! He's my _friend_. Just like all the other Autobots, and I won't let you turn my friends into your creepy human shells so you MECH freaks can build an army!”

“You still do not understand. These experiments are not just about MECH anymore. This is about the future of our species!” Vee made a grand gesture to the clashing robots behind her. “You can see the extraordinary power these Transformers possess; when we harness that power, we will have the ability to advance humankind by thousands or _millions_ of years! Imagine the possibilities; the mind of a human with the body of a Transformer... There would be no limit to what humanity could achieve!”

Miko felt a lump in her throat. She'd be lying if she said she had never been jealous of the 'Bots. The idea of humans becoming giant, weaponized robots _was_ really cool! “No, but-” her eyes darted over to Bulkhead still shuddering painfully. Having to put out a Cybertronian's spark to do it... No, that wasn't worth it at all! “Y-you can't just...” Miko gasped, tears forming in her eyes again and her face flushed with anger. “They're not just machines! And you're _killing_ them!”

“Yes I recognize that, even if many of my colleagues do not.” Vee nodded, “However, it is unavoidable that we allow for some sacrifices as we continue to make progress. But you must understand: the end result we are seeking is far too important to allow mere _sentimentality_ to stop us.” Vee lowered the knife even further, reaching up with her other hand, extending it towards Miko. “And this small role we have for you would aid us in reaching that next step for humanity. This is what is best for our species. This is the only way we survive.”

Miko glared down at the hand offered to her for a moment, then she angled her body away from Vee in disgust. “Is that supposed to be convincing or something, you _freak_?!” she shouted, “MECH doesn't want to help humanity- they just want to help _themselves_ and be more powerful than everyone else! And if you don't realize that then _you're_ the one who's stupid!!”

Vee's expression grew dark again, her enthusiastic beam vanished as though it had never been there at all. “Very well.” she dropped her hand, lifting the knife again. “We can certainly do this the hard way... But make no mistake; there will be consequences for those who stand in our way.”

Drawing back the knife, Vee finally attacked! Miko jumped out of the way of her first swing, and stumbled backwards into the platform railing. “KNOCKOUT!” she screamed as she just managed to avoid another swipe of the knife. “Knockout, _help me!!_ ”

If he _had_ heard her, Knockout certainly didn't acknowledge her pleas. He couldn't bother himself with worrying about the little organic at the moment, not when his own situation was looking increasingly desperate. The medic had sort of been relying on getting his staff back from Silas. Had he been able to do that, he was confident he would have dropped the filthy abomination within a minute. Now he would have to depend on fighting skill and physical strength to overpower him, and those weren't exactly Knockout's forte. And at the moment he was quite literally getting hammered.

Knockout blocked yet another blow from Silas, this time with his forearm, his windows shattered as the frame of the door buckled from the impact. He winced from the pain, but immediately moved to counterattack. He tried to stab his claws into the connecting wires of Silas' arm, but he pulled back too quickly. After Knockout's attack missed, Silas took the opportunity to punch the medic straight on in the chassis with his non-hammer arm. Knockout was flung back and smashed into the wall behind them, denting the metal plating slightly. He slid to the floor, clutching at the cracked plating along his chassis, energon dripping between his digits.

“I told you it was useless,” Silas stepped closer and stood over him. “You never had a chance from the start; you couldn't have expected to match the strength of a Wrecker.”

Knockout's optics narrowed. Silas knew that using Breakdown's memories made him angry, and now he was just throwing it in his face. He was right, though. Knockout was much too small to be able to win against the kind of brute force that Breakdown had. Not without employing some trickery, that is.

“Nothing to say? That's rather unbecoming of you.” Silas drew back his hammer. “No matter. You won't be saying anything soon enough!”

Just as the hammer was about to fall on Knockout's helm, he rolled to the side, transforming into vehicle mode, and took off for the two broken pieces of his staff. He transformed back upon reaching them, and took up one half in each servo.

“Oh there's _a lot_ I want to say to you,” Knockout spun back around to face Silas. “But I'm afraid none of it is appropriate to say in front of-” He cut himself off suddenly and his optics turned towards the catwalks. Miko. He had promised to help the little twerp. She was struggling against that doctor human right now. She appeared to be armed with a small knife, and Miko was trying to wrestle it away from her. Knockout looked back to Silas... but dealing with Silas was more important right now, wasn't it? Miko would just have to wait. Besides, it seemed like she was handling it on her own... right?

Knockout was about to make a move towards Silas, but he froze when he heard a faint crackling from behind him. He spun around and swung up a piece of his staff just in time to deflect a canister launched at him from a MECH agent's shock cannon! That's when he noticed a number of other nearby agents were loading their own cannons and taking aim as well.

The first few shots Knockout was able to deflect again, all the while stepping back and positioning himself so then as another round was volleyed at him, he side-stepped behind Bulkhead, opening up Silas to the line of fire.

After a short cry of surprise, Silas dropped into vehicle mode, shrinking down to avoid the shots. “Stand down!!” he shouted, as he transformed back. Though just as he regained his robot mode, Knockout was on him! Taking the pronged end of his broken staff, he drove it up and into Silas' abdomen, directly under his large chassis plating. Then, using a painful twist of the staff and throwing all his weight behind it, he spun Silas around and slammed him into the catwalks.

Miko and Vee had been struggling over the knife just yards away. Vee had one hand gripped on the blade and the other pressed firm against Miko's throat. Because her hands were still bound, Miko had to use both of them to try and hold back the knife, so it was still a bit closer to Vee's face than her own, but she wasn't going to be able to keep that up. Luckily for her, the force of Silas hitting the platform threw the pair of them and they crashed back into the metal catwalks.

A blood curdling scream immediately followed their impact. Miko rolled over to look at Vee and saw the scientist bent over on her knees, her hands shaking as they hovered over her face. Miko repelled in disgust when she saw why; the switchblade they had been fighting over had smashed through Vee's goggles and impaled itself in her right eye socket! Blood was streaming down her face and dripping into her hands as she screamed in agony.

Miko quickly scrambled back up, drew back her leg, and kicked Vee as hard as she could right in the side of the head! Vee's screams instantly stopped and she fell flat on her side, unconscious, blood still streaming from beneath her goggles.

Now that that had been dealt with, Miko turned to look at Bulkhead. The Autobot was still shuddering painfully, though noticeably less than before. He was getting weaker! She had to do something to help him before it was too late! She hurried for the catwalk that would lead her over to him, but it had just recently been smashed in by Silas, and so she began the process of carefully maneuvering across the twisted, broken metal to reach her friend.

Silas had pulled himself out of the wreckage of metal just moments before and was now hunched over, grasping his bleeding abdomen. His optics were locked on Knockout, who had had to fall back and fight off the MECH agents who were now raining shock canisters and bullets down on him. Silas watched as Knockout transformed into vehicle mode and charged his agents, running down a few of them before swerving away and driving back around to do another run at them. Trying to recapture Knockout was becoming far too costly. It was about time he finished this.

With a low, angry growl, Silas stood upright, still covering his injury with one servo, and stomped over to Knockout. The medic was still in vehicle mode and had just swerved around to take out a MECH agent when he spotted Silas barreling down on him. He slammed on his brakes but it wasn't soon enough, and Silas' pede came crashing down on his hood! The pede was quickly withdrawn and then came swinging back again and kicked Knockout hard on his side, sending him tumbling across the room and crashing into the wall, landing on his side.

Knockout transformed back to his robot mode, albeit a bit slowly, and made to stand up. His arms were shaking too much from the damage though, and he collapsed again.

Silas glared down at him, trying to straighten himself up as well, but he doubled over in pain and grasped at his abdomen with a painful groan. He wouldn't have been able to fight much longer in this condition, so it was lucky Knockout was finally down. The agents on the ground circled around, readying their cannons, when suddenly there was a loud rumbling from above.

Silas froze and turned to look at the door, still sealed with the large, metal blast door. “What was that?” he demanded to no one in particular. The agents nearby followed his gaze, some of them aiming their weapons towards the door.

A moment later, Silas' comm link came online. “ _Silas, sir!! It's the Autobots! They've found our base they're- AUGH! krrrshhhhh -ook out Agent Caid and Rhea!_ ”

“What?! How did they find us so quickly?!” Silas mumbled this to himself, but then brought a digit to the comm on his helm. “How many are there? ...Is Prime with them?”

“ _Yes! It's him and- kshhhhhtttt -an't hold them off much long-_ ” the connection was suddenly cut off after a powerful crunching sound.

Silas let his arm drop down again and swore under his breath. He hadn't been expecting the Autobots to find them so quickly. And now, thanks to Knockout, he wasn't even in a state where he could help fight them off or help his agents capture them. There was only one option left for them, unfortunately.

“Leave the medic,” he commanded his agents. “Initiate Omega Protocols. NOW!”

Shouldering their weapons, the agents surrounding Knockout scurried off to do their assigned duties. Silas turned back around and approached the platform. Miko hadn't quite made it across the broken metal and her eyes grew wide as he approached. He didn't seem interested in her, though. Rather, he reached over and picked up the limp form of Vee. Once she was securely in his servos, he transformed into vehicle mode with her and drove off through the now open doorway.

Knockout, who had momentarily slipped out of consciousness, was awake again and looked up as he passed.

“Oh no you don't!” he growled, pulling himself upright. He took a few steps towards the door, fully intending to give chase, but a voice stopped him.

“Knockout!”

He looked back and saw Miko was running along the catwalk towards Bulkhead. “Knockout, you have to help him!” she screamed. “He'll die! _Please!!_ ”

Knockout's gaze turned from Miko to Bulkhead, then to the empty doorway and corridor in front of him. If he stayed then Silas was going to get away. He would escape and continue to use Breakdown's frame and memories for his sick human/cybertronian experiments. Clenching is jaw angrily, he looked back to Miko and Bulkhead. The blue glow of his spark was growing dimmer, and Miko was crying at Bulkhead to hang on, that she was going to save him, and meanwhile fussing about the control panel, not actually sure how to go about helping her partner...

Her _partner_... Aw scrap. He was really gonna do this.

Knockout turned away from the open doorway and rushed over to Bulkhead. Placing one pede on the side of the slab, Knockout heaved himself up and over Bulkhead so he was standing over him, then plunged his servo into his chassis, sinking his claws into the invading chip. He started to pull, but the resulting cry and shift in internal components made it clear just pulling it out wouldn't work, not unless he wanted to bring the whole spark chamber with it.

“Looks like we'll have to do this the hard way.” Knockout pulled his servo back and transformed out his sawblade.

“H-hey, be careful with that thing, okay?”

Knockout shot a disdainful look over at Miko. “Are you lecturing me? Seriously?” he asked, narrowing his optics. “I am a _doctor_ , you know. It's not like I'm just going to-”

“Y-yeah yeah _whatever!_ Just do it, already!” Miko interrupted him, gesturing wildly for him to continue.

The loud buzz of the sawblade started up and Knockout slowly lowered it towards Bulkhead's spark chamber. Little red sparks began to fly off the device as he cut through it, careful to stop just before he reached Bulkhead's components. Then he cut through the attached wires and tendrils as well, reaching in with his other servo to pull them out and toss the pieces aside. Finally, he pulled out the last, largest piece, and Bulkhead's expression finally relaxed from the painful grimace he had been sporting.

Upon seeing this, as well as there still being a blue glow in his chassis, Miko let out a loud, relieved laugh and tears started dripping down her cheeks. “Bulkhead!” she shouted, trying to reach over the slab and touch his helm. “You're okay!”

“Not just yet, he's not.” Knockout transformed his sawblade away, swapping it out for his welder. “His spark chamber is still damaged.” Glancing around for something to make a patch out of, Knockout finally settled on a small scrap of metal from the broken catwalk and promptly went to work paring the metal and covering the cracks on Bulkhead's spark chamber.

Miko watched nervously, her eyes still teary. “So... so you're fixing him now?” she asked. “So he _is_ going to be okay, right?”

“This sort of patch is only temporary,” Knockout explained, keeping his optics trained on his work. “It'll prevent further damage and keep his spark from going into burnout from energy leaking through the cracks.”

“But he'll survive?”

Knockout paused and glanced up at Miko. “Yes.” He went back to welding. “He'll survive.”

Miko smiled again, wiping the tears off her face. She didn't say anything more, just watched for another minute as Knockout finished his welding. Once he had, he transformed his welder back into his servo and smacked Bulkhead lightly across his helm a few times.

“Alright, it's all finished. Now close this up; nobody wants to see all that.” Knockout gestured a servo down at Bulkhead's chassis, and then stepped off the slab.

Bulkhead, still rather weak, just mumbled a quiet acknowledgement and slowly transformed his chassis plating closed. Miko then used the control panel to release his bonds and Bulkhead, still lacking the strength to properly stand or hold himself up, just slid down to the ground with a loud THUD and sat there leaning up against the slab. Miko jumped over the side of the railing and slid down the slab after him, her boots landing heavily on the back of his helm. Bulkhead didn't seem to mind, though, and she pressed herself against him in an attempt at a hug.

Knockout just watched the pair for a moment, feeling rather pleased with himself and even more pleased that he'd gotten to disassemble one of MECH's digital agents. But as he thought of MECH again, his optics flared in anger.

“ _Silas!_ ” Knockout growled, spinning back towards the door. He started forwards, about to change into vehicle mode and take off, hoping to somehow catch up to the MECH leader, but he stopped when a blue motorcycle came speeding around the bend in the corridor, closely followed by a blue and red truck.

The Autobots... Oh. Oh no. Knockout was in a lot of trouble. He stood stock still as Arcee zoomed past him and up to Bulkhead and Miko. Optimus, however, ground to a halt just at the entrance of the room and transformed to his robot mode- his tall, imposing, robot mode, and approached Knockout.

“Bulk, Miko- are you guys okay?” Arcee had transformed as well and was kneeling next to Bulkhead.

“Yeah,” Miko nodded, then nuzzled her face into the back of Bulkhead's helm. “We're both okay.”

“Can you stand?”

“Nnnhh... don't... think so...” Bulkhead mumbled.

“We'll help you out.” Arcee picked up Miko and placed her safely on the ground, then moved to help Bulkhead up.

Optimus, who had been glaring down at Knockout, glanced over at them, then grabbed ahold of Knockout's shoulder and forcibly spun him back around and moved him towards the two Autobots. “We will discuss disciplinary actions _later_.” The Prime's stern voice made Knockout shudder slightly, but the medic moved forward at his insistence and went to help Arcee with Bulkhead.

“Ratchet. Can you read me?” Optimus said, bringing a digit to his comm link.

“ _I read you, Optimus._ ” Came the reply. “ _And we've got your signal on the console here too._ All _of your signals. Whatever shielding MECH had must have gone offline._ ”

Knockout glanced around the room at hearing this. A lot of the machinery had disappeared, including the neural transferring machine they had been using before. The agents must have scurried off with all of their devices while he hadn't been looking. Great. So not only had Silas gotten away, but he'd got all his technology out as well...

“Good.” Optimus replied curtly. “Send us a groundbridge. Bulkhead requires medical attention.”

Not a second later, the portal opened up just behind Optimus. The Prime stepped aside so Bulkhead could go through, supported by Arcee and Knockout.

Arriving back at the base, Ratchet immediately shuffled Bulkhead over to the medical berth, shooing away Bumblebee, who was still attached to an energon drip. Once Bulkhead's weight was no longer on him Knockout quickly backed away, letting Ratchet get in close to fuss over the green 'Bot and run his scanners over him.

“Where are you hurt, Bulkhead?” he demanded, “I don't see anything physical- is it internal? Did they drain your energon like with Bumblebee?”

“Erhh... No, no Ratch it's... nothin' like that.” Bulkhead spoke slowly, then reached up and tapped at his chassis. “It's my... spark chamber.”

This certainly got the attention of the room. Even Optimus, who had been keeping one optic on Knockout, looked over Bulkhead looking deeply concerned. Suddenly Knockout found that all of the Autobots' backs were to him. And there was no one between him and the exit. He glanced back at the open corridor. Then back at the Autobots... He had attacked Ratchet and Bumblebee to go after MECH on his own. He didn't know what 'disciplinary actions' Optimus had in mind for him, but it wasn't really something he wanted to find out.

As quietly as he could, Knockout began backing towards the corridor, slow enough so if one of them looked back he could freeze as if he hadn't been doing anything. Finally, once he was close enough, he turned and hurried off down the hall as quietly as he could. None of the Autobots noticed.

However, one pink haired little girl sure did. She looked back just as Knockout was turning to go. Shooting a quick glance over at Bulkhead, Miko sprinted after the red mech. When she finally caught up with him, he was at the main entrance fiddling with a security keypad, trying to get out.

Stepping up behind him, she called out. “Hey!”

Knockout paused and turned around to look back. “Oh, it's just you,” he grumbled. Then he turned and went back to work. “What do you want?”

“Are you leaving?”

“What does it look like?” Knockout didn't look back this time. “I can't very well stay here. Not after what I did.”

“Well, I dunno...” Miko rocked back on her heels, turning her eyes to the floor. “I think... maybe you could.” Knockout stopped again, glancing back ever so slightly. Miko continued, “I mean, yeah you did kinda mess up with shocking Ratchet and everything... but you stayed and got that thing outta Bulkhead too. And you did that when you _could have_ gone after Silas.”

Knockout's servos clenched angrily. “He got away,” he growled, “he got away and I could have stopped him!”

“Yeah. But you didn't.”

Knockout turned around all the way, leaning back against the wall and glaring down at Miko. “That's right, I didn't,” he repeated, his frustration very apparent in his voice. “Instead of going after the disgusting human using Breakdown like a puppet, I stayed to help you and your dumb Wrecker partner even though you've been nothing but trouble for me...” He turned his optics away and his voice became quieter. “Why the _frag_ did I do that...?”

Miko couldn't stop a smile from spreading across her face. “Maybe because-” she shrugged her shoulders a little, “that's not the _Autobot way_.”

“ _UUGH_.” Knockout covered his face with his servos, sliding down the wall so he was crouching. “Oh Primus no- please don't say that. You're going to make me purge my tanks!”

Miko let out a quiet laugh, “Ha ha haa! Man, don't blow a fuse! I'm just teasing you.” She stepped closer. “Hey, but since you're here... would you mind, maybe-?”

Knockout uncovered his face and saw she was holding her wrists up towards him. Her hands were still bound by the single ziptie. Not only that, but little streams of dried blood were still smeared across her forearms. He stared down at her for a moment, then finally lowered one servo, extending a digit out to her. She slipped her wrists over the sharp claw and pulled, snapping the ziptie off.

“You know,” Knockout began, pulling his servo away again. “It was very lucky you were able to free yourself back there. If you hadn't managed that, we wouldn't have gotten away.”

“Yeah?” Miko said, standing up a bit taller and smiling smugly as she rubbed her aching wrists. “Well it's to be expected. I am a Wrecker, after all.”

“Right. Sure you are.” Knockout rolled his optics, a tiny smile cracked on his face.

“By the way...” Miko began, “While you two were fighting- did I hear Silas say something about Breakdown being a Wr-”

“ _Don't._ ” Knockout quickly interrupted her.

“Right. Sorry.” Miko held up her hands defensively. “But uh... all kidding aside... _Thanks_. Y'know, for helping Bulkhead.”

“You're welcome, I suppose.” Knockout sighed, shrugging his shoulder plating. “Anyway, this has been just oh so much fun, but I should be on my way.”

“Wait, you don't have to go!”

“Oh yes I do.” Knockout insisted. “I'm not at all interested in being locked up in some cell for the next two hundred vorns!”

“The 'Bots aren't gonna lock you up.”

“How do you know? I put you and Bulkhead in danger. You heard what Prime said about putting _his Autobots_ safety first.”

“Yeah I did. But honestly, I've gotten the team in danger like this before and they _never_ discipline me.” Miko waved away his concerns nonchalantly. “Like remember that time with the info canister thing and we were in the monster truck stadium? That was _totally_ my fault! The 'Bots didn't even yell at me after, though.”

“Really?” Knockout raised an optic ridge at this.

“That's right.” Miko nodded. “You know why? It's because I was trying to look out for my partner. It was kinda a bad idea and I didn't think it through all the way...” Miko looked up at Knockout and met his gaze. “But in the end, my intentions were still good. So the 'Bots understood why I did what I did.

Knockout sighed again, leaning his chin against one of his servos. “That's all well and good for _you._ You're a tiny little organic. The Autobots love you. I'm an ex-Con. They won't have much reason to believe I had good intentions.”

“Sure they will! They'll see the patch you put on Bulkhead and stuff.” Miko gave a thumbs up. “Trust me. If you stick around it'll be fine.”

Knockout stared down at Miko for another minute before he spoke up again. “That's cute. But I'll pass.” he grumbled, standing up straight again.

“How come?” Miko hurried up to him as he turned back to the keypad. “I mean, where are you even gonna go?”

“Not sure yet.” Knockout continued fiddling with the keypad. A moment later a short ding of approval rang out and the metal doors slid open revealing the empty desert road outside.

“Knockout!” Miko called, holding up her hands to stop him. The awkward sort of smile she'd been wearing was gone and she sounded much more serious. “If you go out there on your own you'll die! The Decepticons are still looking for you, remember? What if they catch you?”

“Quite honestly, I'd rather take that chance than become a prisoner.”

“You _won't_ be a prisoner!” Miko insisted. Knockout ignored her and stepped over her onto the dust covered ground outside. There was a moment where Miko paused, apparently trying to think of what to say next until finally she blurted out, “If you leave, how do you expect to find Silas again?”

Knockout stopped. After a moment he let out a quiet huff of air through his vents, but otherwise stayed silent.

“Yeah, that's right! You're not gonna be able to find him on your own out there.” Miko continued, “And him and MECH still gotta pay for what they did to your partner, don't they?”

“From what I've gathered, the Autobots aren't very keen on having _revenge_ as a motive.” Knockout said, glancing back at her. “So I don't think they'll make hunting down Silas a top priority just for me.”

“We don't need the other 'Bots to know about it. It'll be like a secret plot, just between you and me!” Miko seemed overly excited by the idea. “We'll work together; a conspiracy for revenge against MECH to avenge our partners!”

“Bulkhead isn't-”

“Yeah I know!” Miko interrupted him, “But they _tried_ to kill him. And they should pay for that too!” She held out her hand as if wanting to shake on it. “Come on, whattya say? You stick around and I'll do everything I can to help you find Silas.”

There was a quiet minute where Knockout hesitated, but finally he groaned and reached down, offering a single digit out to her. “Fine I'll stay.” he grumbled. “But if the Autobots try to lock me up then all bets are off!”

“Don't worry, I'll put in a good word with Optimus for you.”

“That's appreciated.” Knockout reached down, offering his servo out to her. Miko stepped into it and he lifted her up, and he started back through the entrance.

“But hey! Don't think this means I like you, or anything.” Miko said, pointing up at him with the arm that wasn't wrapped around one of his digits. “I still hate your guts.” She was smiling devilishly as she spoke.

Knockout sneered at the comment. “Of course. The feeling is mutual.”

“Yeah. We're _not_ friends,” she insisted. “Just... coconspirators.”

“Oh that's a big word. Did you learn how to say that all by yourself?”

“Shutup. You're a jerk!”

“And you're still a pest.”


	12. Epilogue

It was nearly a quarter past six when June Darby's white sedan drove through the entrance to Outpost Omega One. In the passenger seat, Jack was absently fiddling with a loose strand hanging off the cast on his arm.

He hadn't been to the base for nearly three weeks. Sitting around the house had been like torture, but he had bared it for his mother's sake. June had been awfully shaken from the episode on the Nemesis and had initially banned him from seeing them until he was fully healed. He'd had to plead for hours just to convince her to take him to see the 'Bots today. He hadn't really spoken to any of them since he'd left, so he was excited and also a little worried to see what had been going on around the base. Especially since Knockout was there now.

“Now remember I'm just dropping you off, so have Ratchet or someone drive you home, okay?” June said sternly, keeping her eyes forward. “I don't want you using the groundbridge in your condition. And I hardly think you need reminding, but _NO MISSIONS._ ”

“Yeah I got it mom, _geez!_ ” Jack grumbled, picking furiously at his cast. “Like I'm gonna go chasing Decepticons in a wheelchair...”

Finally, June rolled to a stop in the main room and opened her door to get out. “Evening, doctor.” she called up to Ratchet who stood nearby. Then she hurried around to help Jack out of the car. As June was helping him into his wheelchair, Jack heard his name being called by a number of voices but most loudly by the girl now sliding down the platform ladder to run towards him.

“Jack's back!!” She shouted, promptly grabbing ahold of the wheelchair's handles and zooming off with him.

“Ah, Miko! Be careful!” June called after her. She didn't seem to be paying attention though, she had just continued talking to Jack. June just gave a short shake of her head and circled back around her car. “Alright, well I've got a shift at the hospital, so I won't be home for awhile. But I'd like for you to be home before it gets-”

Jack couldn't even hear the last few sentences his mother said to him before she drove off. Miko was drowning her out by shouting at him next right to his ear.

“Oh man, it's been crazy around here since you've been gone!” she continued, rolling him up the ramp onto the platform. “Seriously, you missed some super cool adventures, man! We're gonna have to catch you up!”

“O-oh yeah?” Jack grasped nervously at the arm rest with his one good arm as she kept wheeling him on.

As they reached the top of the platform Jack finally got a chance to take a good look around the base. Ratchet was in his usual place in front of the console, Bulkhead was lying across the medical berth on the opposite end of the room, Bumblebee was leaning over the platform's railing to look at what Raf was doing on his computer, and Knockout was sitting nearby mulling over some datapads. Even though he'd been expecting to see him there, it still felt a little weird to see the ex-'Con just sitting around so non-nonchalantly in the Autobot base.

“Oh and... where's Arcee and Optimus?” Jack continued before Miko could speak up again.

“They're meeting with Agent Fowler right now.” Ratchet replied. “They had to report in on a recent incident we had with MECH.”

Knockout let out a disapproving huff of air at this. “I can't believe they didn't take me with them,” he grumbled.

“You're not going _anywhere_.” Ratchet snapped back, glaring at him. “Not for a long while, so get used to it!”

“There was an incident with MECH?” Jack asked. “What happened?”

“Hehehh yeah! And Knockout's on _'probation'_ now because of it!” Miko said, grinning devilishly at Knockout.

“Probation?” Jack repeated, “Why? What did he do?”

“I'm glad you asked!!” Miko jumped in front of Jack, grinning widely. “It's an amazing story! Last week Knockout and I teamed up and fought MECH together!!”

“Oh Primus please don't tell it again...” Ratchet moaned, turning away.

“Wha-? _You_ and Knockout?” Jack asked, glancing back and forth from her to the red mech. “I... I'm surprised. I had thought you two wouldn't get along.”

“We don't.” Knockout stated flatly.

“Yeah, we're sworn enemies.” Miko agreed with a nod. “But, we _do_ make a pretty good team, regardless.”

“Please stop saying that. We are _not_ a team.”

Miko just laughed and made a grand gesture towards Knockout. “So Knockout, you wanna help me tell Jack all about how we trounced MECH together?”

“No.” Knockout waved her suggestion away. “You can keep reliving that nightmare if you want to, but I'll have no part in it.”

“Fine, I'll tell it myself!” Miko hurried back around Jack again and started pushing his wheelchair towards the couch. “Okay, so it started off last week when Bulkhead and Bee went to investigate this Decepticon mine...”

Jack glanced back over his shoulder at Knockout. He made a mental note to himself that, if he ever managed to get a word in edgewise, he would ask Miko why the tips of Knockout's digits were painted red.


End file.
